Dr. Pulteney thinks he was not settled in England during the 
life of Gerarde, though often mentioned in the second edition 
of that author’s Herbal, by its editor Johnson, as well as in 
Parkinson’s works. He is recorded to have been for a con- 
siderable time in the service of the lord-treasurer Salisbury, 
and Lord Wooton. He travelled into various parts of Europe, 
even as far as Russia; and was on board a fleet sent against 
the Algerines in 1620. He brought home plants and other - 
curiosities from these various excursions, but it does not 
appear what was their primary object. About the year 1629 
he obtained the title of Gardener to King Charles I. and 
about that time, or before, was settled at Lambeth, where his 
own garden was situated. Some remains of this were traced 
out by Sir William Watson 120 years afterwards. Tradescant’s 
Ark, or Museum, became very famous as a collection of 
naturalrarities. It was much visited by the great, and even 
by the royal family, all of whom took pleasure in enriching 
it, as in later times their descendants have done to other such 
collections. A catalogue of the Museum Tradescantianum, 
in 12mo., appeared in 1656, with portraits of the owner and 
his son engraved by Hollar; of which however most of the 
copies are plundered by mere print collectors, careless of the 
value of any thing beyond their own object. By this cata- 
logue the museum appears to have been furnished, not only 
with birds, quadrupeds, fish, shells, insects, minerals, fruits, 
&c. but also with warlike instruments, habits, utensils, coins, 
and medals. There is annexed a catalogue in English and 
Latin of the plants cultivated in the author's garden. This 
portrait represents him as greatly advanced in age at this 
period, but the time of his death is not known. His son, of 
the same name, visited Virginia, and returned with several 
new plants; amongst others the original Tradescantia. ‘This 
son inherited his father’s collections, and, dying in 1662, be- 
queathed them to Mr. Elias Ashmole, so that they may be 
said to have laid the foundation of the Ashmolean Museum at 
Oxford, in which they, like the name of their original owner, 
are now sunk. ‘The widow of the younger Tradescant, the 
mother probably of the grandson mentioned in the epitaph, is 
said to have erected the curious and rather splendid tomb, 
remarkable for its allusive decorations, which still exists in 
Lambeth church-yard. See Dr. Ducarrel’s account of this 
monument, in the 63rd volume of the Philosophical Trans- 
actions.” 
