(Vol. iii., pp. 119. 286. 353.)
DR. RIMBAULT justly observes that "the history of the Tradescants is
involved in considerable obscurity." He does not, however, seem to have
been aware that some light has been thrown on that of the elder John
Tradescant by the researches of Dr. Hamel, in his interesting Memoir
published in the _Transactions of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg in
1847_, with the following title:--"Tradescant der Aeltere 1618 in Russland.
Der {392} Handelsverkehr zwischen England und Russland in seiner
Entstehung," &c.
DR. RIMBAULT'S note contains a good epitome of the most obvious English
notices respecting the Tradescants; but while correcting the errors of
others, he has himself fallen into one important mistake, in stating that
"Old John Tradescant died in 1652;" for that is the date of the death of
his grandson, John, who died young. Old John died in 1638, leaving a son,
also named John, who was born in 1608, and died in 1662, having survived
his only son ten years; and, having no heir to his treasures, he had
previously conveyed them, by deed of gift, to Elias Ashmole, who seems to
have contrived to make himself agreeable to him by his pursuits as a
virtuoso, and by his alchemical and astrological fancies. When Dr. Hamel
was in England, I had the pleasure of indicating to him the site of
"Tradescant's Ark" in South Lambeth. It was situate on the east side of the
road leading from Vauxhall to Stockwell, nearly opposite to what was
formerly called Spring Lane. Ashmole built a large brick house near that
which had been Tradescant's, out of the back of part of which he made
offices. The front part of it became the habitation of the well-known
antiquary, Dr. Ducarel. It still remains as two dwellings; the one, known
as "Turret House," is occupied by John Miles Thorn, Esq., and the other,
called "Stamford House," is the dwelling of J. A. Fulton, Esq.
In his indefatigable researches to elucidate the early intercourse between
England and Russia, Dr. Hamel's attention was accidentally called to the
Tradescants and their Museum; and the following passage in Parkinson's
_Paradisus Terrestris_, p. 345. (Art. "Neesewort," then called _Elleborus
albus_), led to the discovery of a relation of Old John's voyage to
Russia:--
"This (says Parkinson) 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 rarities and varieties, my very good friend John
Tradescante, 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."
The same notice, in other words, also occurs in Parkinson's _Theatrum_, p.
218.
In searching among the MSS. in the Ashmolean Museum, Dr. Hamel bore this
passage in memory, and one MS., thus described in Mr. Black's excellent
catalogue, No. 824., xvi., contained confirmatory matter:
"A Voiag of Ambassad undertaken by the Right Honnorabl S^r Dudlie
Diggs, in the year 1618."
"This curious narrative of the voyage round the North Cape to
Archangel, begins with a list of the chief persons employed in the
embassy, and contains observations of the weather, and on the
commercial, agricultural, and domestic state of Russia at that time. It
is written in a rude hand, and by a person unskilled in composition.
The last half page contains some chronological notes and other stuff,
perhaps written by the same hand."