CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA K 43 



Elias Ashmole, Esq., who now keeps them carefully and methodi- 

 cally at his house near to Lambeth, near London,* as may get 

 some belief of some of the other wonders I mentioned. I will 

 tell you some of the wonders that you may now see, and not till 

 then believe, unless you think fit. 



You may there see the Hog-fish, the Dog-fish, the Dolphin, the 

 Cony-fish, the Parrot-fish, the Shark, the Poison-fish, Sword-fish, 

 and not only other incredible fish, but you may there see the 

 Salamander, several sorts of Barnacles, of Solan Geese, the Bird 

 of Paradise, such sorts of Snakes, and such Birds' nests, and of so 

 various forms, and so wonderfully made, as may beget wonder and 

 amusement in any beholder ; and so many hundred of other 

 rarities in that collection, as will make the other wonders I spake 



curiosities, and succeeded in his suit. Mrs Tradescant, shortly after the pronouncing 

 the decree, was found drowned in her pond. This collection, with what additions he 

 afterwards made to it, Mr Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford, and so became the 

 Founder of the Ashmolean Museum. A monument for the three Tradescants, very 

 curiously ornamented with sculptures, is to be seen in Lambeth Churchyard ; and a 

 representation thereof, in four plates, and also some particulars of the family, are given 

 in the Philosophical Transactions, volume Ixiii. part i. p. 79 et seq. The monument, 

 by the contribution of some friends, to their memory, was in the year 1773 repaired ; 

 and the following lines, formerly intended for an epitaph, inserted thereon : 



Know, stranger ! ere thou pass, beneath this stone 

 Lie JOHN TRADESCANT, grandsire, father, son. 

 The last dy'd in his spring : the other two 

 Liv'd till they had travell'd art and nature thro' ; 

 As by their choice collections may appear, 

 Of what is rare in land, in seas, in air ; 

 Whilst they (as Homer's Iliad, in a nut) 

 A world of wonders in one closet shut. 

 These famous Antiquarians, that had been 

 Both Gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen, 

 Transplanted now themselves, sleep here ; and when 

 Angels shall with their trumpets waken men, 

 And fire shall purge the world, these hence shall rise, 

 And change their gardens for a Paradise. 



The Tradescants were the first collectors of natural curiosities in this kingdom. The 

 younger of them published in 1656, i2mo, "Museum Tradescantianum ; or a Collection 

 of Rarities preserved at South Lambeth, near London," containing portraits of his father 

 and himself, engraved by Hollar. Tradescant's House is still known by the name of 

 Turret-House, and is now, or was in 1809, in the occupation of Charles Bedford, 

 Esq. E. 



* Ashmole was at first a Solicitor in Chancery ; but marrying a lady with a large 

 fortune, and being well skilled in history and antiquities, he was promoted to the office 

 of Windsor Herald, and wrote the "History of the Order of the Garter," published in 

 1672, in folio. But addicting himself to the then fashionable studies of chemistry and 

 judicial astrology ; and associating himself with that silly crackbrained enthusiast, John 

 Aubrey, Esq. of Surrey, and that egregious impostor, Lilly the Astrologer, he became a 

 dupe to the knavery of the one and the follies of both ; and lost in a great measure the 

 reputation he had acquired by this and other of his writings. Of his weakness and 

 superstition he has left on record this memorable instance: "nth April 1681, I took, 

 early in the morning, a good dose of elixir, and hung three spiders about my neck ; and 

 they drove my ague away. Deo gratias." See " Memoirs of the Life of that Antiquarian, 

 Elias Ashmole, Esq., drawn up by himself by way of Diary, published by Charles Burnian, 

 Esq., izmo, 1717." H. 



