‘I thought we would sell them,’ J confessed, a little shamefaced. ‘And keep the money.’

John shook his head. ‘We keep them,’ he said. ‘They will be the making of us. Rare plants in the garden, rare and beautiful things in the house. It is our ark with rare and lovely things. And every day the ships come in with more things ordered by my lord duke. We shall buy them on our own account and set them in our room.’

‘And we charge people for looking?’

‘Why not?’

‘It just seems so odd. I’ve never heard of such a thing before.’

‘My lord duke kept his cabinet of curiosities for his friends to look at and enjoy. And the Earl Cecil before him.’

‘He didn’t charge them sixpence a time!’

‘No, but we will open our doors to ordinary people. To anyone who wishes to come and see. Not friends of ours, or even people with letters of introduction. Just anyone who is curious about wonderful and peculiar things. We let them come!’

‘But how would they know of it?’

‘We will speak of it everywhere. We’ll make a catalogue so people can read of all the things we have on show.’

‘D’you think people would come?’

John nodded. ‘In Leiden and Paris the universities have great collections and they show them to the students, and to anyone who applies to see them. Why not here?’

‘Because we are not a university!’

John shrugged. ‘We have a collection which is equal to my lord Cecil’s, and many men admired that. We make a beautiful room with the big things hanging from the ceiling and displayed on the walls and the small things bedded in little drawers in big cabinets. Seeds and shells, clothing and goods, toys and ingenious things. I’m sure we can do it, J. And it will mean that we are earning money in the autumn and winter when the garden work is less.’

J nodded but then remembered the cost of the panes of glass. ‘But Venetian windows are not necessary …’

‘We need good light if we are to show rarities,’ John said firmly. ‘This is not some little petty fusty cabinet. This is the first rarities show in the country, it will be one of the first things to see in London. A grand room with the things laid out handsomely. People will not come to see them at all if they are not housed in a proud and handsome manner. Venetian windows and waxed floors! And sixpence a head!’

J deferred to his father’s judgement, and only muttered about grand schemes and a duke’s tastes over his dinner that night, but the two men clashed again when J, trundling a sapling in a barrow around the wall of the new wing, glanced up and saw the stonemason fixing in place a handsome coat of arms.

‘What are you doing?’ he yelled upwards.