TRADESCANTS. 27 DESCANTIANUM. turalift hath made more than reparation, by giving to a genus of plants the title of TRADESCANTIA*. The Museum Tradefcan- MUSEUM TRAtianum, a fmall book, adorned by the hand of Hollar with the heads of the father and the son, is a proof of their industry. It is a catalogue of their vast collection, not only of the fubjects of the three kingdoms of nature, but of artificial rarities from great variety of countries. The collection of medals, coins, and other antiquities, appears to have been very valuable. Zoology was in their time but in a low ftate, and credulity far from being extinguished: among the eggs is one fuppofed to have been of the dragon, and another of the griffin. You might have found here two feathers of the tail of the phenix, and the claw of the ruck, a bird able to truffe an elephant. Notwithstanding this, the collection was extremely valuable, especially in the vegetable king dom. In his garden, at his houfe in South Lambeth, was an THEIR GARDEN. amazing arrangement of trees, plants, and flowers. It seems to have been particularly rich in those of the east, and of North America. His merit and affiduity must have been very great; for the eastern traveller must have labored under great difficulties from the barbarity of the country: and North America had in his time been but recently fettled. Yet we find the names of numbers of trees and plants ftill among the rarer of much later times. To him we are alfo indebted for the luxury of many fine fruits; for, as Parkinson obferved, "The choyfeft for goodnesse, and "rareft for knowledge, are to be had of my very good friend. "Mafter John Tradefcante, who hath wonderly laboured to ob"taine all the rareft fruits hee can heare off in any place of Chrif 28 MONUMENT DE SCRIBED. TRADESCANTS MONUMENT. "tendome, Turky, yea, or the whole world*." He lived at a large houfe in this parish, and had an extenfive garden, much vifited in his days. After his death, which happened about the year 1652, his collection came into the poffeffion of the famous Mr. Elias Afmole, by virtue of a deed of gift which Mr. Tradefcant, junior, had made to him of all his rarities, in true aftrological form, being dated December 16, 1657, 5 bor. 30 minutes poft merid. †. Mr. Afhmole alfo purchased the house, which is ftill in being, the garden fell to decay. In the year 1749, it was vifited by two refpectable members of the Royal Society, who found among the ruins fome trees and plants, which evidently were introduced here by the induftrious founder. The collection of curiofities were removed by Mr. Afhmole, to his Museum at Oxford, where they are carefully preferved. Many very curious articles are to be feen: among others, feveral original dreffes and weapons of the North Americans, in their original state; which may in fome period prove serviceable in illustrating their manners and antiquities. THE monument of the Tradefcants was erected in 1662, by Hefter, relict of the younger. It is an altar tomb at each corner is cut a large tree, feeming to fupport the flab: at one end is an bydra picking at a bare fcull, poffibly defigned as an emblem of Envy on the other end are the arms of the family on one fide are ruins, Grecian pillars, and capitals; an obelifk and pyramid, to denote the extent of his travels and on the oppofite, a croco Parkinson's Paradifus Terreftris, p. 575. + Ashmole's Diary, 36. The late Sir William Watson, and Doctor Mitchel.-See Ph. Tranf. vol. xlvi. P. 160. GUY FAU X. dile, and various fhells, expreffive of his attention to the study of natural history. Time had greatly injured this monument; but in 1773 it was handfomely restored, at the parish expence; and the infcription, which was originally defigned for it, engraven on the stone. As it is both fingular and historical, I present it to the reader. Know, ftranger, ere thou pafs, beneath this ftone Liv'd till they had travell'd Art and Nature through, As by their choice collections may appear, A world of wonders in one closet fhut: And fire fhall purge the world, these hence shall rise, In contrast to thefé innocent characters, I fhail mention that defperate mifcreant Guy Faux, or Vauxe, as an inhabitant of this parish. He lived in a large mansion called Faux-ball, and, as Doctor Ducarel imagines, was lord of the manor of the fame name. In foreign parts a colonne infame would have been erected on the spot but the fite is now occupied by Marble-hall, and Cumberland tea-gardens, and feveral other buildings. See the form of the tomb and fculpture in Doctor Ducarel's App. to the History of Lambeth, p. 96. tab. iv. v.-and Ph. Tranf, lxiii. tab. iv. v. 29 GUY FAUX. FROM 30 MRS. COADE'S STONE. ENGLISH WINES; LAMBETH MARSH. FROM Lambeth I returned by the water-fide, near the end of Westminster bridge, along a tract once a dreary marsh, and still in parts called Lambeth marsh; about the year 1560, there was not a house on it, from Lambeth palace as far as Southwark. Sir William Dugdale makes frequent mention of the works for fecuring it, in old times, by embankments or walls as they are styled, to restrain the ravages of the tide. The embankments in Southwark must have been the work of the Romans, otherwise they never could have erected the buildings or made the roads of which fuch frequent veftiges have been found. Most of this tract is become firm land, and covered with most useful buildings even to the edge of the river. In a ftreet called Narrow Wall (from one of the antient embankments) is Mrs. Coade's manufacture of artificial stone. Her repofitory confifts of feveral very large rooms filled with every ornament which can be used in architecture. The statue, the vafe, the urn, the rich chimney-pieces, and, in a few words, every thing which could be produced out of natural stone or marble by the most elegant chifel, is here to be obtained at an easy rate. Proof has been made of its durable quality. The inventor has been able to ward off the attacks of time, but not of envy: a beautiful font, now the ornament of Dibden church in Essex, and which was formed on a most admirable antique model, was denied to the public eye, in a place where liberality ought to have enjoyed the freeft reign. NOTWITHSTANDING the climate of Great Britain has, at left of late years, been unfavorable to the production of wines: yet, in the year 1635, we began to make fome from the raifins or Dugdale's embankments, p. 67. MAGNIFICENT WINE MANUFACTORY. dried grapes of Spain and Portugal. Francis Chamberlayne made THIS great work, and that for the making of vinegar, is at a fmall distance from Mrs. Coade's. I can fcarcely fay how much I was ftruck with the extent of the undertaking. There is a magnificence of bufinefs, in this ocean of fweets and fours, that cannot fail exciting the greatest admiration : whether we confider the number of veffels, or their fize. The boafted ton at Heydelberg does not surpafs them. On first entering the yard, two rife before you, covered at the top with a thatched dome; between Rymer's Fadera, xix. 719. 31 AND VINEGAR. GREAT TONS, them |