278 DR BArgraves Museum of Rarities by John Harris CATHEDRAL Libraries are notorious repositories of the mislaid and the unknown How long would Dr John Bargrave have escaped! the attencion of modem & had not: Christopher Gibbs been asked for zifzv-'» - marble table 11;". siandetli in my dining- : ‘C mentioned in Bargraves Will. The other was ~_:;‘:eri to the cathedrzil by Dean George Stanhope Who died in 1.748. but was made for Philip, Lord Stanhupe to Whom Bar- gravc Was tutor on his Grand Tour in 1650. It is extraordinary that one of the earliest surviving musicological collections in Ellglnlld, preceded only hy the _Musaem Tradescantianum should have bccn puhlishcd in 1867, yet lain hidden; but then volumes of the Camden Society arc not compelling MAT'TlO BOLONINUS PORTRAIT OF ALEXANDER CHAPMAN ,]JOHN BARGRAVE AND JOHN RAYMOND IN SIENXA l647. BaFg'v‘a\'e travelletl in Europe antl North Africa for 17 years c0l_‘iect'i;1; reading. lt might, too, have taken mine pe:5.1.15.:' " turn beyond the title page of Bargrave's Pope Alexander the Seventhh and the College of Cardinals find an admirable account of Bargraves ;:\\'n m-: ..:.: thc cclitcd transcription of his rnanuscripc /1r1ti'qurz, Ll Nmuivinuta Buyiwauiariu, or “(Ii:3'.~:~gu: 3: Dr Bargraveis i\/luseuni", listin the “:ab::et " medals, antiquities, rareties, andg coyties" :hat .1. bequeathed to Canterbury Cathedral 111 l6t'woi'd and three i ' testifying to his trade as merchant and ad\'Cl1I‘.1ICf. I1: uml his hmthers were pioneer settlers and tralcrs 1:. Virginia. Thcrc was another brother. l5;.;.:. ‘YHP Lravelled extensively in Europe and became ;i15;__ to Sir Henry Wotto11’s Embassy in Vcrite. el‘er:; Q succeeding Dr Boys as Dean of Cali:er'3u:f.' ii; 1 Q5 l\/lerchunt adventuring was in the Famili bloti. LI I Dean Bnrgraves son. Robert, W-is irticlei 1; Lcvaiitine merchant, exploring th: :\lCZiifff?'.":_ littoral zintl fiirthei" inlzmd to rcmuter tutti. A place such as Bifrons was flfltli 113! so :~. 5: From world events, and For these ;‘ETlT;'.CIlE Bazgr; was a staging-post on their tra\'Cl5. I: .=:i~:l serendipity that at the Kings Scixc-oi. C;:t::':. fellow pupil of John's was Joni T:1Lf§;;.:_Z younger, whose celebrated azii :r;.:l1-::;'we..:; t . was then gardener to l_::i 'iY.i::;:‘ 3;: brother, at nearby S: .*;.:;'.:s: — ~ i: 5 unreasonable to sugges: 51;: 5:3“ ::' "~ Tradescaiifs North \‘T‘.CT‘..'iT. Ilii ‘u :75-:::'; tions and curiositics :::;;§_: 151'; :e:- . through the inte':e~~{c: 3:‘ :1: E_::"7_' 1- lizht Bargtavess f\l:s:'.1r. LI’ T.zt;?L:= —~-.»_: - 1 Pctcrhouse in 1643 was in€\ ic- . He rcturned to Kent a;"_;l i ‘ med his exile, not sn ditficul: 101' emlwer of :1 fiunilv With so 1:n1n\ \ is»-__.-\ liilg contacts. In 1646 began the I i cur : of four toms that would last l: rs‘ ~ i ,:._ ‘ Travelling in the company Ofhis __ i '~ A haw John Raymond (the author ‘~ _‘\. ‘K \ ‘Q. _ 3»; Itinerary Cmzmyning a Vuyugy ‘~ /i >5 ‘ “ ' through Italy, in /he Yenre 1646, T647 in 1648) and Alexander apman, also of Kcntish gentry. “grave made Sienna the first stop, \ get some knowledge and practice 3:: vul 2r tongue". In 1647 ttio Iugnini commemorated ::1c in"-:i.l on copper, poring over :::;p 0? Italy. Thcir arrival in 1:1; coincided with young Robert *1‘-‘J '5 travels in the retinue of i A I _ ‘ w (AIJOVP left] 3~)IU MNIIFI ED FINGER, FRQM TOL LUUS l‘). (Top) 11—DBII‘lD CI lAI\IE| LO} , I " ' ' ” ' ARE INDIA‘ (lEREN1()XLA L H|‘lADW'-\RE “PERFU’\IED Al\D STUFII-.D. (Abuve) 5~R , , r ‘i -rt ail that is chiefly notahlc in and . i _ '1. ."7j:—rarities rather L0 be named yn _l ' :i;—5.\ch in iiurnher and quality as the I 1 rlrii .:anscarce equal, much lcss exceed”. 5.1rg:a\'c:s travels can be reconstructed :':::i corcmenrs in his Ram. IF any place was a =:_*.i:1g point it was Leydeii, where he was ,;:ing retired" in 1650 when he was asked by :3: Countess of Chestcrfield, then in The Htgue, to be travelling tutor to her son Lord Starzhope. Bargrave was buying prints in Paris, tallccting odd mussel shells in La Rochelle. ;dding Roman periwinklcs to his collection from the Loire at Done, near Sauznur, and Iirorn Toulouse revelling in desiccated corpses. in particular describing how he play ed with the corpse ofa French soldier who had been stabbed in the chest: “I pulled 1:13 hand away several times, and the nerves and tendons were so strong that the hand returned with lusty clap upon the wound." I-Ie declined the otter of a dried baby, but took instead a finger. Optical instrumerits \\ ere his quest in Nuremberg, Augsburg and Vienna, and in Venice he bougn: “of a High Dutch Turner" a “very artiricial anatomy ofa human eye, with all its films or tumiclcs, by way of turnery in ivory or horn: together with the optick nerve Whitil: ruiineth into the brain”. In September 1656 he was in Prague to see thc coronation of the Emperor Leopold. King of Bohemia, and in Novcrnher ir1 Innsbruck to witness the reception of Christina of Swctien into the Roman Church: “but her caftiag if Tl1E church was very st:andal:.\i:3—'au;;ning and gigling, and curling and tri:n:r:iig 1:21" locks and n "several suni;tier§" if. I_\'::117 1 ‘:31; :7 " "Pal Mal". attracted. one s;s:\:;it». :‘ it 1‘ handsome" and wanton lady: aobcis. I658 was ready to “leap through the ;ra::= ‘it (> his only entry Into international politics, was made Lu 1662 at the command ofCharle< II, or \ the archdioceses of Canterbury and York, to carry to Algiers £10,004] ransom money raised by the Cliurch to bargain for the release of 300 British slaves captured on the sea by North African pirates. He was forced Lu bid for them slave by slave "as one buyeth horses in Smithficld", and succeeded in saving I62 at great danger to himself and his companion Dr Sellcck. Joy at seeing him. i \ \ Bargrave’s rnost memorable vovaa 2.11:. . ' rcrnemberecl in the cathedlral atzcountii when Bargrave was treasurer, For under 1669-70 is: “To a poorc man that had his toung cut out at Argicrs. . . 1.0.” In the display cases is “The picture in little of Shahan Agaa. . . the King of‘ Argecrs. .. [by al poor painter, and Italian slave", and the dried chameleon “ eriiained and srtlffcd” that was “given me Allive in Africa lbutl for Want offiics it died” on the way home. There is more than this, for not only has the North African footware survived, but also the rare lnclian ceremonial liezxelwear ofa member of the Cree tribc from Hudson Bay, given to Bargrave by Timothy Conley, one of the ' .merchants he rescued, as a mark of gratitude. The museum that Barqrave rnust havt assembled in his house in the 1660s cannot be isolated from what he saw in the rest of Europe during his travels—and this rnust also be said 3—BHOl\ZE IIERCULES. ‘~44 . .