Uploaded October 2017 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Sir Hans Sloane was a wealthy society doctor with an insatiable appetite for collecting. President of both The Royal Society and The Royal College of Physicians, and married to a similarly wealthy heiress to Jamaican sugar plantations, with all the slavery they entailed, he amassed the largest single collection of objects in British history. Employing an international network of agents and finders, his voracious hoarding and impeccable taste formed the bedrock of the newly formed British Museum, to which he willed his collection and which opened in 1759 as the first free museum in the world.
This fascinating man, who lent his name to such London landmarks as Sloane Street, Sloane Square and Hans Crescent, has long remained an enigma. This handsome book redresses the balance and makes a riveting riveting read.
thisoldhoarehouse.com
Sir Hans Sloane was a wealthy society doctor with an insatiable appetite for collecting. President of both The Royal Society and The Royal College of Physicians, and married to a similarly wealthy heiress to Jamaican sugar plantations, with all the slavery they entailed, he amassed the largest single collection of objects in British history. Employing an international network of agents and finders, his voracious hoarding and impeccable taste formed the bedrock of the newly formed British Museum, to which he willed his collection and which opened in 1759 as the first free museum in the world.
This fascinating man, who lent his name to such London landmarks as Sloane Street, Sloane Square and Hans Crescent, has long remained an enigma. This handsome book redresses the balance and makes a riveting riveting read.
thisoldhoarehouse.com
![The Twelve Days of Christmas [correspondence] by John Julius Norwich, illustrated by Quentin Blake](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_6zUu8b_-rc/mqdefault.jpg "The Twelve Days of Christmas [correspondence] by John Julius Norwich, illustrated by Quentin Blake
This delightful stocking-stuffer, of immense humour and charm, was originally published in 1998, and remains a Christmasy classic. Being thank you notes on the part of a well-bred lady to her invisible admirer, which increase in portent with each passing day (and delivery), these lead inevitably to a colourful showdown, involving an assortment of geese, maids-a-milking and questionable old men cavorting on the lawn.
Accompanied by Quentin Blakes peerless illustrations, a prime example of British humour at its seasonal best. Delectable!
https://www.thisoldHoarehouse.com")
