‘I promise,’ John said. ‘I’m as English as you. I’m John Tradescant, gardener to the king of England, I have a house and a garden in Lambeth and a wife called Hester Pooks and a daughter called Frances and a son called Johnnie.’ As he spoke the familiar, beloved names he felt a stirring as if they themselves were calling to him and he should have been listening, he should have heard them earlier.

‘Then what are you doing like a savage in the woods?’ the man asked, his gun pointed unwaveringly at John’s crotch.

John hesitated. Of course, that was the very question.

‘Because I didn’t know where I should be,’ he said slowly. Then he raised his voice and said loudly enough to be heard: ‘I was living with the Powhatan, but now I want to go back to England. Can I borrow some clothing and take a boat to Jamestown? I can get money sent to me there, and repay you.’

The man motioned him forwards and John stepped cautiously closer. ‘What’s the name of the new Parliament commander?’ the man asked him quickly.

John spread his hands. ‘I don’t know. I’ve been with the Powhatan for the last two years. When I left the king was defeated at Edgehill – I thought it would not be long for him then.’

The man laughed shortly. ‘It still is not decided now,’ he said. ‘What’s the name of the king’s cousin?’

‘Prince Rupert?’

‘His son?’

‘Prince Charles?’

‘Nationality of his wife?’

‘She’s French, I can tell you the colour of her eyes,’ John said. ‘I was in court service, I was gardener at Oatlands Palace.’

The man checked. ‘You were gardener to the queen of England and here you are as naked as a savage after running wild two years with the Powhatan?’

John stepped forwards and held out his hand. ‘Odd, isn’t it? I’m John Tradescant, of the Ark, Lambeth.’

They loaned John a pair of breeches and a coarse linen shirt and he crammed his feet into a pair of shoes that should have been the right size but which pinched his feet unbearably. Running barefoot for two years had hardened the skin and spread the bones of his feet, John feared he would never walk comfortably in boots or shoes again.

A tobacco ship called in at the quay to load their crop the next day and John sent a note to Hester at Lambeth and packed his seeds and roots into a watertight barrel addressed to her.

Dear Wife,

I hope this reaches you in good health and fortune. I am on my way to Jamestown after many months living in the forest. I have no money. Please send a note of credit for me to draw twenty pounds for my board and lodging and journey home. I shall come home as soon as I receive the money.