Letter 2707

Sherard informs Sloane that a date has been set for him to sail back to England. There is an auction which will last 3 months. He notes that the auctioneers ‘proceed with no method but skip from one sort to another as the buyers demand’. He thanks Sloane for the advice regarding his books. A number of bales are en route from various locations, including Geneva and Bordeaux. Sherard is looking forward to seeing Sloane again. Sherard was a botanist and cataloguer. He worked for the Turkish Company at Smyrna where he collected botanical specimens and antiques (D. E. Allen, Sherard, William (16591728), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25355, accessed 24 June 2011]).