‘And as soon as possible I shall take ship,’ John said. ‘Don’t doubt me, Hester. I shall leave for the new world. I am sick of this country. I am sick of this house.’ He did not say it but the words ‘and I am sick of you’ hung in the air, unspoken, between them.

She bowed her head. ‘I shall guard the children and the trees for your return.’

‘And if I never come back?’

‘Then I shall guard them for the next John Tradescant, your son,’ she said. ‘And I shall guard them for the people of England who will want the trees and the plants when they stop making war. And then they will remember and honour the name of Tradescant, even if you are no longer here.’

October 1642

The luck of the Tradescants was still running John’s way. There was a ship due to leave for Virginia in October and he could get a place aboard her. Half a dozen new settlers were sailing too, loading their goods and getting ready for their new life. John was on the dock with them when someone shouted that the king had fought a battle and had triumphed, at a place called Powick Bridge.

John joined the crowd that gathered around the trooper. He was a Parliament man and his tale of terror was growing greater with every telling.

‘We were serving under my Earl of Essex,’ the man said. ‘And ordered badly, no-one can deny it. We were to cut off the king’s cousin, Prince Rupert, from the main army. But as we went down the lane towards them there was firing on either side of us, from the hedges. Dirty work, you couldn’t see where it was coming from. The officers shouted “Wheel about” – but none of us knew how to wheel about. Easier to say than do in the narrow lanes anyway. Some were shouting that “wheel about” meant retreat, and they tried to force their way back through the others coming forward. Those at the back still didn’t know of the danger so they were coming on. It was all confusion, d’you see?

‘There was a charge from the king’s devils, cavalry, riding like madmen, and we went down and around and were thrown about. It was every man for himself all the way back to our camp and the next day the Earl said we should all be trained properly, and that he would have us trained at once.

‘But Prince Rupert trained his men before he took them out. He told them what “wheel about” meant before he marched them into the very jaws of the enemy. Prince Rupert learned his fighting all over Europe. Prince Rupert is going to win this war for his cousin King Charles, he knows all the tricks. Prince Rupert has changed our plans completely, he has beaten us before we began.’