70 THE COMPLETE AKGLEE. [PAKT I. 



also in the learned Dr. Casaubon's l " Discourse of 

 Credulity and Incredulity," printed by him about the 

 year 1670. 2 



I know, we islanders are averse to the belief of these 

 wonders ; but, there be so many strange creatures to be now 

 seen, many collected by John Tradescant, 3 and others added 

 by my friend Ellas Ashmole, Esq., who now keeps them 



1 Meric, son of Isaac Casaubon, born at Geneva in 1599, but educated at 

 Oxford, was, for his great learning, preferred to a prebend in the Cathedral 

 of Canterbury, and the Rectory of Ickham near that city. Oliver Cromwell 

 would have engaged him by a pension of 300Z. a year, to write the history 

 of his time, but Casaubon 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 chai-acter 

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

 tion, and very charitable to the poor. Wood's " Athen. Oxon." H. 



2 Walton has been accused of excessive credulity in reciting these wonders 

 of river and sea. But they were current at the time he wrote, and 

 printed in books of authority, and, at the present day, are amusing rather 

 than misleading. The Tcraken and' the mermaid, improbable as they are, 

 Lave been believed at a much later period ; while those once incredible 

 animals the Ichthyosaurus, the Megatherium, the Ornithorhyncus, aud 

 some others, are proved to have existed. 



3 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 the First. 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 church-yard. His house known by the name of Turret 

 House, still remains, and is in the occupation 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 con- 

 veyed 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 church- 

 yard ; and a representation thereof, in four plates, and also some particulars 

 of the family, are given in the "Philosophical Transactions," vol. 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. 



