HISTORICAL NOTES. 75 



aubon refused it. Of many books extant of his writing, that 

 mentioned in the text is one, viz., "Of Credulitie," &c., Lond. 

 1668, p. 143. He died in 1671, leaving behind him the character 

 of a religious man, loyal to his prince, exemplary in his life and 

 conversation, and very charitable to the poor. WOOD'S "Athen. 

 Oxon." H. 



j There were three of the Tradescants, grandfather, father, and 

 son : the son is the person here meant ; the two former were 

 gardeners to Queen Elizabeth, and the latter to King Charles I. 

 They were all great botanists, and collectors of natural and other 

 curiosities, and dwelt at South Lambeth in Surrey, and, dying 

 there, were buried in Lambeth churchyard. His house, known 

 by the name of Turret House, still remains, and is in the occu- 

 pation of Charles Bedford, Esq. Mr. Ashmole contracted an 

 acquaintance with the last of them, and, together with his wife, 

 boarded at his house for a summer, during which Ashmole agreed 

 for the purchase of Tradescant's collection, and the same was 

 conveyed to him by a deed of gift from Tradescant and his wife. 

 Tradescant soon after died, and Ashmole was obliged to file a bill 

 in Chancery for the delivery of the curiosities, and succeeded in 

 his suit. Mrs. Tradescant, shortly after the pronouncing of 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 founder of the Ashmolean 

 Museum. A monument to 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 par- 

 ticulars of the family, are given in the " Philosophical Transac- 

 tions," vol. Ixiii., Part I., p. 79, et scq. 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. 



