formerly imported from Holland and Flandcrt. Qnoen C a ttehm , w tan «
salad was obHo-cd to despatch a messenger thither on purpose. (Hist, o f Eng. anno
m 7 .V M t a t a n 1600, sLaWng
brought into England for profit about seventy years ago ; before which we fetched most
of on? chen-ics from Holland, apples from Ih-anee ; and hardly had a mess of peas,
bnt fi-om Ilolland, which were dainties for ladies, they came so fai and cost so dear.
S h i e rL d e f e n g h.ath crept out of Holland to Sandwich, Kent, and thence to Surrey
whcr!, though they havo given 6?, an acre and upwards, they have made thoir rent, lived
comfortable, and set many people to work.” (Ifbri/ues, part in. p. 77.)
658. During tho reign o f Henry F Z //., rapid steps were made ni horticultme. Ac-
coi-dino- to some authors, apricots, musk-mclon,s, and Connth grapes from Zante, -were
introduced hv that monarch’s gardener ; and dfterent kinds of salad, hçrhs, and
roots were about the same time first brought into the country from Elandeis S a lta ^
however, according to Holingshed, are mentioned during Edward IV. s iei„n. H m i j
had a fine garden at his favourite palace of Nonesuch, in the parish of Cheam, m Suney
The garden wall was fourteen feet high, and there were 212 L L q ? " n I ta 2
Primte Purse Expenses o f King Henry V I I I ., from November 1529 to
published in 1832) salad, and especially lettuce, is repeatedly rnemioncd as being hiought
? the king’s giu-denei-s from Richmond and Greenwich. Artichokes L ? ? ! m
Among tho fruits arc grapes, peaches, apricots, quinces, and medlars. Notice is made
of r e ^ i- d h o L given toL L g a rtlen e r at Hampton Court for melons and 0 « ™ *
dated October 8. Loland, who wrote dm-ing this reign, informs iis (Zimcrai-y, &c.), that
a t Moi-lo in Derbyshire, “ tlicre is as much pleasure of orchai-ds of great variety o ffrait,
a^ “ a ? place of Lan’eashire. The castle of Thorahmy, in Gloucestershire, had an
orchard of four acres, and there were others at 'Wresehill on the Ouse. ^
659. Bootis on horticulture appeared towards the middle of the axteenth oentm^^^
The first treatise of hushaiidry was a translation from the Y Bi* oP G r ^
in 1500. In 1521, appeared Arnold’s Chronicles, m which is a chaptci on Mie eiafte
of-graffynge, and plantyngc, and alteryngo of fruits, as well in ooloum as m taste. ^ The
firs? author who treats incidentally on gardening is Tusser, whose Hundreth Pointes o f
in Hart. Trans, i. 150.), who had received a
liberal education at Eton School, and at Trinity Hall, Camhndge, lived many years as
a farmer in Suffolk and Norfolk ; he afterwards remorad to I » ? ' ? ?
the first edition of his work, and died in 1580. In his fourth edition, iii 1572, he hist
introduced the subject of gai-dcniiig, and has given us not only a list ?®°
of all the plants then cultivated in our gardens, either for pleasure or profit, uiidei the
following heads : —
Mascal is said to have introduced some good varieties of
ft sorts, peer plains black and yellow, quince-trees; raspes, retsons
? p r o S i r f u ? ™ « h ? a l l "'>■'*<« ‘'‘N w e -tte e ., wardens white and red,
early as 1657.
661. The fertility o f the soil o f England was depreciated by some in Tusseris time,
prohahly from seeing tho superior productions brought from Ilolland ana Eianoe.
Dr. BuUeyn, a contemporary, defends It, saying, “ wo had apples, pears, plums, chcn-ios,
and hops, of our own growth, before the importation of these articles into England by
the London and Kentish gardeners, but th a t the cultivation of them had been greatly
neglected ” Ho refers as a proof of the natural fertility of the land to the great crop of
sca-peas (Pisum maritimimi), which gi-cw on the beach between Orfori and ^ d b o ro n g h ,
T d wWoh saved the p o o r% the dearth of 1565. Oldys, speaking of Gerard’s fine g ai-
dcn and alluding to the alleged depreciation of our soil and climate, says, from whence
it would appear, that our ground could produce other fi-uits besides hips and haws, aeoms
and f t g - Z s ? A t this time, observes D?. Pulteney (Sketches, &e„ 118.), “ kitehen-garden
wares were imported from Holland and fi-uits from Fi-ancc. ’ ^ , , „r
662. During Ac reign o f Elizabeth, horticulture appears to have been in a state of
m-ogrcss. Various works on this branch tlien appeai-cd, by Didymus Moimtain, Hyll,
Mascal, Googe, &c.; these, for the most pai-t, ai-e translations from the Roman and
ni'odera continental authors,
the apple.
663. Charles I. seems to have patronised gardening, Ilis gardener was Tradcscant,
a Dutchman, and he appointed the celebrated Pai-kinson his herbalist. In 1629, appeared
the first edition of this man’s great work, in folio, entitled “ Parudisi in sole Paradisus
terrestris; or, a Gm-den of all soites of pleasant Flowers, with a Kitchen Gai-deii of
all manner of Herbs and Roots, and an Orchai'd of all sorts of Fi'uit-bearing Trees, &c.”
This (Martyn’s Miller’s Diet., and Ed. Encyc. ail. Hort.) may be considered as the first
general book of English gardening possessing the character of originality. For the culture
of melons, he recommends an open hotbed on a sloping bank, covering the melons
occasionally with straw,—the method practised in the north of France at tliis day.
Cauliflowers, celery, and finochio were then gi-eat rarities. Virginia potatoes (our common
sort) were then r a r e ; but Canada potatoes (our Jerasalem ai-ticlioke) were in common
use. The variety of fruits described, or a t least mentioned, appears veiy great. Of
apples there ai*e 58 sorts ; of pears, 64 ; plums, 61 ; peaches, 21 ; nectarines, 5 ; apricots, 6;
chen-ies, no fewer than 36; grape-vines, 23; figs, 3; with quinces, medlars, almonds,
walnuts, filberts, and the common small fruits.
664. Cromwell was a great promoter of agriculture and the useftil branches of gardening,
and his soldiers introduced improvements whenever they rested any time in a
place. The principal writers on iiu-al subjects at tliis period appeal” to have been
Captain Walter Blitli and Samuel Hartlib. Blitli’s plan of improvement consisted
chiefly in irrigation and d rainage; but he also recommends ploughing, and compounding
various soils with the earth. Hartlib recommends the adoption iu England of the two
secrets of Flemish husbandry,— tliat of letting farms on improving leases, and cultivating
green crops.
665. Charles I I., being restored to the throne, infroduced French gardening; and his
gardener, Rose, Daines Barrington informs us, “ planted such famous dwarfs at Hampton
Court, Carlton, and Marlborough gardens, that London, who was Rose’s apprentice,
in his Retired Gardener, published iu 1706, challenges all Europe to produce the like.”
Waller the poet, in allusion to the two last gardens, describes the mall of St. James’s
Park, as—
“ All with a border of rich fruit trees crown’d .”
Wlien Quintinye came to England to visit Evelyn, Charles H. offered him a pension to
stay and superintend the royal gardens here ; but this, says Switzer (Pref. to Ichnographia
Rustica), he declined, and returned to serve his own master. Daines Bairington conjectures
that Charles II. had the first hot and ice houses ever built in this countiy, as, at .the
installation dinner given at Windsor, on the 23d of April, 1667, there were cherries,
strawben-ies, and ice-creams. These fruits, however, had been long, as Switzer states,
raised by dung-heat by the London gai’deners, aud the use of ices must have long before
been introduced from the Continent.
666. Evelyn was a distinguished patron of horticulture. On returning from liis
travels, in 1658, he published his French Gardener, and irom that time to his death in
1706, continued one of the greatest promoters of our art. In 1664, he published his
Sylva, Pomona, and Kalendarium Hortense; the latter, the first work of the kind which had
ajjpearcd in tliis countiy. In 1693, his translation of Quintinye’s work on orange trees,
and his Complete Gardener, appeared; aud his Acetaria, in 1699, was his last work on
this branch of gardening. Evelyn is universally allowed to have been one of the warmest
friends to improvements in gai'dening and planting that has ever appeared. He is
eulogised by Wotton, in his Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning, as having
done more than all former ages, and by Switzer, in liis historical preface to Ichnographia
Rustica, as being the first that taught gardening to speak proper Englisli. In his Memoirs
by Bray arc tlic following horticultm-al notices : —
667. Lady Brook’s at Hackney, in 1661. “ Vines planted in strawbeny borders,
staked at ten feet distance. I saw the famous queen-pine brought from Barbadoes, and
presented to bis majesty.” Evelyn had seen one four years before; aud he aftenvards
saw the first king-pine presented at the banqucting-housc, and tasted of it. A t Strawberry
Hill was a picture, in which Charles II. is receiving a pine-apple from his gai’dener.
Rose, who is presenting it on his knees.
668. A t S ir William Temple’s, a t E a s t Sheen, in 1666, the most remarkable things
“ arc his orangciy and gardens, where the waJl-fruit trees are most exquisitely nailed
and trained, far better than 1 have noted any where else,” Sir William has some ju d icious
remarks on the soils and situations of gardens, in his Essay WTitteu in 1668. He
was long ambassador at the Hague, and had the honour, as he informs us, and as Switzer
confirms, of introducing some of our best peaches, apricots, chcmes, and gi-apes.
669. A t Kew Gardens in 1678 vol. ii. p. 17.), “ Sir Henry Capel has
the choicest plantation of fruit in England, as he is the most industrious and most uu