"Of what is rare in land, in sea, in air"

I love when I find great posts about museums on the blogs that I regularly read for enjoyment. I've posted before about Curious Expeditions. Now, I've found something great on Feral Strumpet Teatime, a blog about one woman's experience of London.

The author recently posted about the Museum of Garden History in Lambeth and, in particular, the sarcophagus of John Tradescant the Elder there. In brief, the Tradescants were a family of collectors and their voluminous collections formed the basis of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, founded in 1683. You can check out the extant Tradescant collection at the Ashmolean here.

Feral Strumpet Teatime's author posted a lovely photo of the sarcophagus and transcribed the poem that's carved upon it. I won't reproduce it here, as it's her work and you should go to her site to read it. And you absolutely should, for despite their somewhat crazy ways, it's the work of medieval collectors like the Tradescants which helped develop the museum as we know it today. Just think where we'd all be without them!