Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Class, Collecting, Natural History, Museums, Biblical Authority

    After some preliminary comments on the divine ordination of 'the ranks and gradations of society', the narrator recounts the details of his recent visit with some 'young friends' to the 'house of a nobleman, which is obligingly shewn to strangers' (230). The narrator reports: 'We were [...] led into the saloon, which, decorated with horns of the elk, and antlers of the stag, was also a museum; here my companions had an opportunity of viewing various valuable specimens of natural history, which they had never seen before' (231–32). The narrator and the party's guide both relate some of the specimens to biblical incidents.