CHAPTER I. 



HISTORICAL NOTICES. 



THE Museums of the University of Oxford contain the oldest 

 Public Collection ever formed in the British Isles for the illustra- 

 tion of Natural History, Antiquities, and Archaeology, 



This Collection was first gathered, as so many others have been, 

 round the nucleus of a garden. 



John Tradescant, a Dutchman, came to England about the end 

 of the sixteenth century, and, like our famous Gerarde, who was 

 chief gardener to Lord Burleigh, ( a great lover of plants/ he 

 entered the service of Lord-Treasurer Salisbury and Lord Wootton, 

 and afterwards became gardener to King Charles I. Travelling 

 in various parts of Europe, including Russia, and penetrating into 

 Barbary, he brought home plants and other ' rariora/ The plants 

 furnished his garden at West Lambeth ; the other curiosities grew, 

 by additions, to a museum known as Tradescanf s Ark a . A cata- 

 logue of this collection, under the title of Museum Tradescantianum, 

 contains a remarkable list of many natural objects: animals, 

 plants, minerals, besides a variety of warlike instruments, habits, 

 utensils, coins, and medals. Appended to it is a catalogue of the 

 plants cultivated in his garden at Lambeth b . He was designed for 

 the appointment of gardener to the ' Physic Garden' founded by 

 Lord Danby at Oxford in 16221633, at a yearly stipend of about 

 ^50; but died in 1638, without actually entering on his office. 



The son of Tradescant, also named John, inherited his father's 

 collections and his botanical tastes. To him we owe the garden- 



a Evelyn, in his Diary, notices, as one of the chief rarities of the collection, ' a 

 feather from the Phoenix' wing' (vol. i. p. 322). 



b 1656. i2my. ^ 



" > B 



