May 17. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



393 



good frioml, John Tradescantes, has wonderfully 

 laboured to obtain all the rarest fruits hee can lieare 

 of in any place <>i' Christcndoiue, Turky, yea, or the 

 whole world." The passages in llie journal of" his 

 voyage, which prove it to be indubitably his, are 

 numerous, but the one which first struck Dr. Ilaniel 

 was sufHcient; for in folloiving the narrator on the 

 Dwina, and the islands there, and, among others, 

 to Rose Island, he found this note, " Helebros 

 albus, enoug to load a ship." There are, however, 

 others confirmatoi-y beyond a doubt. Parkinson, 

 in his Paradi.sus Terrestris, p. 528., has the follow- 

 ing passage : — 



" There is another (strawberry) very like unto this 

 (the Virginia strawberry, wliicli carrieth the greatest 

 leafe of any other except the Bohemian), tliat John 

 Tra;lescante bronglit with him from Brussels (I. Russia) 

 long ago, and in seven years could never see one berry 

 ripe on all sides, but still the better part rotten, al- 

 though it %vould flower abundantly every yeare, and 

 beare very large leaves." 



Tradescant mentions that he also saw straw- 

 berries to be sold in Russia, but could never get 

 of the plants, though he saw the berries three 

 times at Sir D. Digges's table ; but as they were 

 in nothing difi'ering from ours, but only less, he 

 did not much seek after them. It is most probable 

 that he brought seed, as he did of another berry, of 

 which he sent part, he tells us, to his correspondent 

 Vespasian Robin at Paris. 



Of a man to whom the merit is due of having 

 founded the earliest Museum of Natural History 

 and Rarities of Art in England, and who possessed 

 one of the first, and at the same the best. Botanic 

 Garden, every little particular must be interesting, 

 and it would be pleasing to find that he was an 

 Englishman, and not a foreigner. The only ground 

 for the latter supposition is, I believe, the assertion 

 of Anthony a Wood, that he was a Fleming or a 

 Dutchman. The name Tradescant is, however, 

 neither Flemish nor Dutch, an>l seems to me much 

 more like an assumed English pseudoiiyme. That 

 he was neither a Dutchman nor a Fleming will, I 

 thitik, be obvious from the following passage in the 

 narration of his travels : 



" Also, I haue beentould that tlieare growethe in the 

 land bothe tulipes and narsisus By a Brabander I 

 was tould it, thoug by his name I should rather tliink 

 him a Ilolander. His name is Jonson, and hathe a 

 house at Arctiangell. lie may be eytlier, for lie [is] 

 always druke once in a day." 



Now, had Tradescant himself been a Fleming 

 or a Dutchman, he would at least have been able 

 to sneak decisively on this occasion ; to say nothing 

 of the vice of intemperance which he attributes to 

 the natives of those countries. Again, it is (juite 

 clear that this journal of travels was written l)y 

 Tradescant; yet that name does not ap[)ear either 

 in the MS. or in the Russian archives : but we have 



John Coplie in both, with the indication in the 

 MS. that he was a Wurcesterxliire mnn. Let us 

 therefore, on these grounds, place him in the list 

 of English worthies to whom v/e owe a debt of 

 gratitude. But supposing Tradescant to have been 

 Lis real name, it is (juite eviilent that he travelled 

 under the name of John Coplie ; and it is perhaps 

 vain to speculate upon the reasons for the assump- 

 tion of a pseudonyme either way. 



Dr. Richard James, who accompanied Sir 

 Dudley Digges as chaplain, appears, from Turner's 

 account of his MSS.. which are deposited in the 

 Bodleian, to have left behind him a MS. account 

 of his travels in Russia, in five sheets ; but this 

 MS. seems to have been lost or mislaid in that vast 

 eiuporium, or we might have some confirmation 

 from it respecting Tradescant. 



South Lambeth was in former times one of the 

 most agreeable and salubrious spots in the vicinity 

 of London, and at the time when Tradescant first 

 planted his garden he must have had another 

 worthy and distinguished man for a neighbour, 

 Sir Noel Caron, who was resident ambassador here 

 from the States of Holland for twenty-eight years. 

 His estate contained 122 acres ; he was a benefac- 

 tor to the poor of his vicinity by charitable actions, 

 some of which remain as permanent monuments of 

 his benevolence, in the shape of almslniuses, situate 

 in the Wandsworth Road. T'he site of Caron 

 House is now possessed by Henry Beaufoy, Esq., 

 who has worthily emulated the deeils of his pre<le- 

 eessor by acts of munificent benevolence, which 

 must be fraujjht with incalculable good for ages 

 yet to come. Mr. Beaufoy has, among his litei-ary 

 treasures, a very interesting collection of letters in 

 ilS., written in French, by Sir Noel Caron to 

 Cotictantine Huyghens, I think, which contain 

 many curious illustrations of the events of that 

 period. 



Let us hope that time may bring to light further 

 and more complete materials for the biograjjhy of 

 these Lambethan worthies, who have deserved to 

 live in our memories as benefactors to mankind. 



S. \y. SiNGEE. 

 Manor Place, So. Lauheth, May 5. 1851. 



THE FAMILY OF THE TRADESCANTS. 



In Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. .359., 

 New Series, may be found an account of this 

 family, written by myself; I hope to be excused 

 when I say that it is the most accurate hitherto 

 published. It gave me great pleasure to find that 

 so distinguished an anti(piary as Dr. Rimb.ault 

 maiidy coi-roborates the article alluded to; but I 

 regret that I feel bcnnid to notice a serious error 

 into which that gentleman has fallen. Dr. 11. 

 stales that "Old John Tradescant died in the year 

 1652 ;" and in another place he states that — 



