Protector. It found its way to London towards the end of the last
century, where it was exhibited at No. 5, Mead Court, Old Bond
Street. {20} It is said to have been acquired by Sir Joshua
Reynolds in September, 1786, and to be now or late in the collection
of Mr. W. A. Wilkinson, of Beckenham. It is recorded in one of the
Additional Manuscripts in the British Museum, under date April 21,
1813, that "an offer was made this morning to bring it to Soho
Square, to show it to Sir Joseph Banks, but he desired to be excused
from seeing THE REMAINS OF THE OLD VILLANOUS REPUBLICAN, THE MENTION
OF WHOSE VERY NAME MAKES HIS BLOOD BOIL WITH INDIGNATION. The same
offer was made to Sir Joseph forty years ago, which he also
refused." What a charming specimen was Banks of the genus Tory!
But after all it is a comfort to think that on this occasion he was
right: for while this head was undoubtedly that which did duty for
the Protector at Tyburn, and was afterwards fixed on the top of
Westminster Hall, it was almost certainly not that of Oliver
Cromwell: whose remains probably still lie crumbling into dust in
their unknown grave on Naseby Field. {21a}

I give one more example of robbing the grave of an illustrious man,
through the superstition of many and the cupidity of one.
Swedenborg was buried in the vault of the Swedish Church in Prince's
Square, on April 5, 1772. In 1790, in order to determine a question
raised in debate, viz., whether Swedenborg were really dead and
buried, his wooden coffin was opened, and the leaden one was sawn
across the breast. A few days after, a party of Swedenborgians
visited the vault. "Various relics" (says White: Life of
Swedenborg, 2nd ed., 1868, p. 675) "were carried off: Dr. Spurgin
told me he possessed the cartilage of an ear. Exposed to the air,
the flesh quickly fell to dust, and a skeleton was all that remained