In the afternoon we again drove to Dr Woodward's, where we at last attained our object of seeing his things. He again after his manner kept us waiting for a good half-hour in the anteroom, afterwards regretting that we had not arrived on the stroke and come half an hour earlier. This is the discourteous little ceremony that this affected and pedantic mountebank makes a habit of going through with all strangers who wait on him. He first showed us a considerable number of all manner of lapidibus pretiosis, which are to be found here and there in England. After this we saw some minerals and then the petrefacta, which are the most elegant of all his collections. He had not a vastly amazing quantity of them, but they were choice and handsome. Among other things he showed us shells filled and partly encrusted with all kinds of stones, even with the hardest flints. We found especially curious the collection illustrating prodigiously elegantly the whole generation of shells from beginning to end in complete sequence. He had also many varieties of stones figured with all kinds of plants. Further, shells encrusted with all manner of metals and minerals, part of them being also entirely filled with them. Among the latter were a large quantity of fine cornua Hammonis. He had a cupboard filled with all sorts of urns and ancient vases. In another were large mineral-snails and great cornua Hammonis, which were certainly handsome, though their size did not equal those we saw in Limburg at Herr Reimer's. In a cabinet he had a considerable number of manuscripts dealing with English natural philosophy, which, so he told us, he had for the most part written himself. As he shut this cabinet he said that he would now prove to us that he was not 'idle'. We could not immediately recall the meaning of the word in English and thought, from the pronunciation, that he meant to say that he was not 'eitel' (vain). Since he was making such a boast of his own works we could scarce restrain our laughter. Among these books was a volume in which he had had all his shells tolerably well drawn. Further, an elegant herbarium vivum Anglicanum collected by him, where the plants were extraordinarily fresh and well preserved. In another room in a lacquered cabinet he had a tolerable collection of all manner of shells, where we saw one vastly curious thing, namely the Muscovy vegetable sheep, which is described in detail by Adam Olearius in his book of travels. It was not quite a span high, light brown, and the wool did not so much resemble ordinary long wool as the fibres that grow in a reed, though they are somewhat more woolly and have longer hair, as you might say; this plant takes nourishment through the feet that it has in place of roots. This was one of the greatest curiosities that we saw here, or, indeed, in the whole of our travels. Dr Woodward showed us all his things with such affected gestures and rolling eyes that we could not restrain our laughter, although he dislikes this just as much as being interrupted; indeed he requires everyone to hang on his words like an oracle, assenting to and extolling everything. One has to listen ad nauseam to his opinions de diluvio & generatione antediluviana & lapidum postdiluviana. He recites whole pages of his writings, accompanying them with continuous encomiums. The most ridiculous thing of all is that he never ceases looking at himself in the mirrors, of which several hang in each room. In every respect he behaves like a female and an insolent fool. For a pedant he is much too gallant and elaborate. He is a man in the thirties, unmarried, but criminis non facile nominandi suspectus. Very ridiculous stories are told of him, and Herr Erndel gave a most diverting account of him in his Epistle de itinere Anglicano. This angered him greatly, and he is continually railing against this German. It is thought that for this reason he has taken a dislike to Germans and raises a great many difficulties about showing them his things, which was certainly our experience.