344 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September, 4, 1860. 
PORTRAITS OF OLD ENGLISH GARDENERS. 
THE TREDESCANTS. 
It lias been usual to spell the name of these eminent gardeners 
■land naturalists Tradescant, but we have adopted the spelling 
employed by the junior of them in his recently-discovered will. 
'So little genuine information has been preserved concerning the 
family, and so little was it sought for until within these few years, 
that “Tradeskin” and even still more defective appellations have 
been employed when writing of them and their museum. 
It is not improbable that the family, judging from the name, 
were of French extraction; though, without any sufficient grounds 
for the assertion, it has been usual to state that they came from 
Holland. Be this as it may, it seems clear to our judgment 
that John Tredescant, the eider, and the first of the family of 
whom we have any notice, 
was a native of England, 
and born in Worcestershire. 
The following is the founda¬ 
tion on which we found our 
opinion. At page 346 of 
his “ Paradisus Terrestris,” 
Parkinson has this intima¬ 
tion that Tredescant had 
been in Russia ;— 
“This ‘ Neesewort,’ then 
called Elleborus albus, 
grows in many places in 
Germany, and likewise in 
certain places in Russia, 
in such abundance that, 
according to the relation 
of that worthy, curious, 
and diligent searcher and 
preserver of all Nature’s 
rarieties and varieties, my 
very good friend John Tra- 
descante, of whom I have 
many times before spoken, 
a moderately large ship (as 
he says) might be laden with 
the roots thereof, which he 
there saw on a certain 
island.” 
This induced Dr. J. Ha¬ 
mel to search in Russia for 
some records of that visit; 
that search was unsuccess¬ 
ful, but in examining the 
.MSS. in tlieAshmoleanMu- 
seum, he found one giving 
an account of a voyage to 
Russia, undertaken by Sir 
Dudley Digges, in 1618. It 
is evidently in Tredescant’s 
own handwriting, and con¬ 
tains the expression quoted 
by Parkinson. The words 
of the MS., referring to Rose 
Island, on the river Dwina, 
are “ helebros albus, enough 
to load a ship.”—( Hamel’s 
England and Russia. Trans¬ 
lated by J. S. Leigh , page 
255.) 
This MS. then was, probably, written by Tredescant; and that 
it was, is confirmed by the nature of the contents, from which we 
shall presently make some extracts. The title of the MS. is this : — 
“Aliagof Ambassad undertaken by the Right Honnorabl 
S r Dudlie Diggs in the year 1618, being atended on withe 6 
Gentillmen, whiche beare the nam of the king’s Gentillmen, 
whose nams be lreere notted. On M. Nowell, brother to the 
Lord Nowell, M. Thomas Finche, M. Woodward, M. Cooke, M. 
Fante, and M. Henry Wyeld, withe every on of them ther man. 
Other folloers, on Brigges, Interpreter, M. Jams, an Oxford man, 
his Chaplain, on M. Leake his Secretary, withe 3 Scots; on 
Captain Gilbert and his Son, withe on Car, also M. Mathew De 
Quester’s Son, of Filpot Lane, in London, the rest his own rete¬ 
nant, some 13 whearof (Note on Jonne an Coplie wustersher 
men) M. Swanli of Limhouse, master of the good Ship called 
the Dianna of Newcastell, M. Nelson, part owner of Newe 
Castell.” 
Now, we read the words in Italics thus:—“Note, one John 
and Coplie, Worcestershiremen.” That “ John ” we think was 
Tredescant himself, and that lie and Coplie were natives of 
Worcestershire. : 
Whether this were so or not, it is quite certain that he was 
settled at Meopham, in Kent, a few miles south of Gravesend, 
for its parish register records the birth of his son there in the 
year 1608.— ( Notes and Queries, v., 266.) 
This, probably, led to his acquaintance with Sir Dudley 
Digges, who resided near Canterbury. 
The Diana, on board 
which were Sir Dudley 
Digges and Tredescant, 
sailed from Gravesend, 
June 3,1618. We must be 
content with a few brief 
extracts from Tredescant's 
Journal. They touched at 
Newcastle for fresh provi¬ 
sions, and he notes down, 
“ I bought 11 salmons for 
6s. the cnple, and others for 
4s. the cuple, which at Lon¬ 
don would have been worth 
£2 10s. the cuple.” 
On entering the mouth 
of the Dwina, July 16th, 
they received from the Agent 
as a present, “ on good bul¬ 
lock, 2 sheep, 10 hens, 2 
fesants, 6 pattriges, non like 
the Inglish.” 
Tredescant’s impatience . 
to acquire a knowledge of I 
the plants of the Dwina, 
induced him to be at once 
landed by means of the ; 
ship’s boat. Immediately 
he fell in with a berry re¬ 
sembling a Strawberry, but 
of an amber colour, and 
with leaves like the Avens 
( Geum urlammi); this must 
have been the yellow Cloud¬ 
berry (Rubus chamcemorus). | 
He sent some of the seed to 
Paris, to Robin, the florist, j 
probably the Yespasian Ro- ' 
bin, whose father John had 1 
established the first good j 
garden in the French me¬ 
tropolis, whence, during the t 
last ten years of the 16th ;j 
century he carried on a mu- j 
tual exchange of seeds with | 
our Gerard. Parkinson in j 
his “ Theatrum,” mentions < 
that Tredescant had re¬ 
ceived some roots of “Doro- j 
nicum americanum ” (Rud- 
beckia laciniata), from Vespasian Robin. Jean Robin cultivated j 
in his garden, about the year 1600, more than 1000 different 1 
species of plants. The genus Robinia is named after him. I 
Henry IV., of France, conferred on him the title of “ herboriste 1 
du roy.”— (Jlatnel’s England and Russia, p. 267.) 
Tredescant, of course, makes many observations upon the $ 
plants of Russia. Thus, “In the contrie, as 5 parts is woods ] 
and unprofitable grounds. I have seen 4 sorts of fir trees an 'i 
barcli trees ( Retains alba) of great bignes, which in the spring j 
tyme they make incistion for the juice to drinke, which they saye ] 
is a fine coole kind of drink, which lasteth the most part of May l 
and the beginning of June.” “ For ther drinks they be meads 
made of bony and watter, and also beere ; but ther Ruse beer is j 
wonderfull base of an ill taste, but ther best meade is excellent 1 
drinke, mad of the hony which is the best honny of the world.” 
