ENGLISH GARDENS. 287
f
del-standing in it.” Daines Burlington (Archæologia, vol. viii. p. 122.) considers Lord
Capel to have been the first person of consequence in England, who was at much expense
in his gardens, having brought over with him many new fruits from France.
670. During the eighteenth century, the progress of horticulture, as of every other
dcpai-tment of gardening, was rapid. Tliis will appear fi-om the great number of excellent
authors who aiipem-cd during this period, as Miller, Lawrence, Bradley, Switzer,
ill tho first half; and Hitt, Abercrombie, the Rev. AV. Marshall, M‘Phail, and others,
in the latter part of the period. Switzer was an artist gai-dener and a seedsman, and
laid out many excellent kitchen and fruit-gardens, and built some hot-walls and
forcing-houses. Macky, in his Tour through England, published in 1720, says that
Sccretai-y Johnson had iu his garden the best collection o ffra it trees of most gentlemen
in England, and tliat he was particularly celebrated for his vines, which he grew on
slopes, and from which he made some hogsheads of wine cvei-y year. He adds, that Dr.
Bradley ranked Johnson among the first giu-dcners of the kmgdom. (Macky, as quoted
by Lysons, vol. ii. p. 774.)
671. Forcing-houses and pine-stoves appear to have been introduced in the early part
of the eighteenth century ; but forcing by hotbeds an d dung placed behind walls
ofboards were, according to Switzer (Fruit Gardener) and Lord Bacon, in use for an
unknoAvn length of time. (See Bradley’s Treatise on Husbandry and Gardening, 1724.)
672. The pine-apple, according to Bradley, was very successfully cultivated by Sir
Matthew Decker, at Richmond, in 1719 ; but it had been long before brought into England
from Holland, where it was introduced by M. Le Cour from tho West Indies, and cultivated,
in pits, in liis garden near Leyden. Warner, of Rotherhithc, excelled in the
culture of the vine, and raised from seed the red or Warner’s Hamburgli, a variety
which still continues to he much esteemed.
673. In ihe last year o f the seventeenth century appeared a curious work, entitled
Fruit-walls improved by inclining them to the Horizon, by N. Facio de Duillicr, F. R. S.
Tliis work incurred the censure of the practical authors of the day ; but, founded on
con-ect mathematical principles, it attracted the attention of the learned, and of some
noblemen. Among the latter was the Duke of Rutland ; and the failure of the trial of
one of these walls led to the earliest example which we have been able to discover of
forcing grapes in England. This, Lawrence and Switzer agree, was successfully accomplished
at Belvoii- Castle, in 1705. The slanting walls were revived in some places in 1848.
674. The nineteenth century commenced by extraordinary efforts in horticulture.
The cultiu-e of exotic fruits aud forcing has been greatly extended ; and wliile in the
middle of tho eighteenth century scarcely a forcing-house was met with, excepting
neai- the metropolis, there is now hardly a garden in the most remote county, or a citizen’s
potagcry, without one or more of them. The public markets, especially those of the
metropolis, are amply supplied with forced productions ; and far better pines, gi'apes, and
melons are grown iu Britain than in any other pai-t of the world.
675. The London Horticultural Society, established in 1802, has made astonishing
exertions in procuring and disseminating fruits, culinai-y vegetables, and horticultural
knowledge, and has succeeded in rendering the subject populai- among the higher classes,
and in stimulating to powerful exertion the commercial and serving gardeners. P ro vincial
horticultural societies have now become general, and they, together with thcir
exliibitions and prizes, Iiave certainly given an extraordinai-y stimulus both to fioricultui-o
and horticulture.
StiBSECT. 2. Gardening in Scotland, in respect to its horticultural Productions.
676. The earliest Scottish horticulturists, Chalmers remarks, were the abbots ; and thcir
orchards are still apparent to the eyes of antiquaries, while their gardens can now be
traced only in the chai-tularies. A number of examples of gai-dens and orchards ai-e
mentioned in writings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; and even at this day.
Dr. Neill obseiwes, “ several- excellent kinds of fi-uits, chiefly apples and pears, are to be
found existing in gardens, near old abbeys and monasteries. That such fruits were
introduced by ecclesiastics cannot admit of a doubt. The Arbroath oslin, which seems
nearly allied to the burr knot apple of England, may be taken as an instance ; that apple
having been long known all round the abbey of Aberbrothwick, in Forfarshire ; and
tradition uniformly ascribing its introduction to the monks. — The great cai-e bestowed
on the culture of fruits, and of some cu lin a ^ herbs, by the clergy and nobility, could
not fail to excite, in some degree, the curiosity and the attention of the inhabitants in
general ; and it may, perhaps, be said that the first impulse has scarcely spent its force ;
ibr it is thus but comparatively a short time (four or five centuries) since the cultivation
of apples, pears, cherries, gooseberries, and cun-ants, and many of the common kitclicn-
vegctables, was introduced into this country.” (On Scottish Gardens and Orchards, in
Gen. Rep. o f Scot., p. 3.)
xl ^7^; the beginning o f the eighteenth century, the best garden iu Scotland was
that of J . Justice, at Crichton, near Edinburgh. From the year 1760 to 1785, that of
Moredun claimed the priority. Moredun garden was managed by William Kyle, author
ot a work on forcing peaches and vines; and Dr. Duncan informs us, that the late Barou
Moncrieff its proprietor, ‘‘used to boast, that from his own garden, witliin a few miles of
lulmburgh, he could, by the aid of glass, coals, and a good gardener, match any country
111 Kuropc, in peaches, grapes, pines, and every other fine frait, excepting apples and
p e a rs ; these, he acknowledged, were grown better in the open air in England and the
north of Ifrance. (Discourse to Caled. Hort. Soc., 1814.) It is obsei-vcd, in another of
Dr. Duncan s discourses to this society, that in 1817, on the 10th of June, a bunch of
Hamburgh grapes was presented, weighing four pounds, the berries beautiful and large
in J une it is added, “ such grapes could not he obtained at any price, cither in France
bpam, or Italy. These fiwits arc decisive proofs of the perfection to which horticulture
has attained m Scotland, in spite of many disadvantages of soil, climate, and nccuniarv
circumstances. , if
678. The Scottish authors on this department of gardening ai-e not numerous The
first was Reid, in the seventeenth, and the best. Justice, about the middle of the
eighteenth ccntui-y. In the nineteenth century, Nicol’s works appeared and a variety
of other writers in the Memoirs o fth e Caledonian Horticultural Society.
679. The nineteenth century lias greatly increased the reputation of Scotland for
gardeners and gardening, not only from the general improvement in consequence of the
increase of wealth and refinement among tho, employers and patrons of the art, but from
tiic stimulus of the Caledonian Horticultural Society, whicli, by well-deviscd compctitoiw
exhibitions and premiums, has excited a most laudable emulation among practical gardeners
of every class. ^
SuESECT. 3. Gardening in Ireland, in respect to its horticultural Productions.
680. A s fa r as respects hardy fru its and culinary vegetables, the gai-dens of the principal
proprietors in Reland may be considered as approacliing to those of Scotland or
England, as they arc generally managed by gardeners of these countries; but in respect
to hothouse productions, Irisli gardens are fai- behind those of the sister kingdoms
Pine-applcs were first brought to Dublin by Bullcr, a nurseiyman there, in the rcigri
of George II. In the neighbourhood of Kilkenny, the pine-apple seems to have been
more extensively cultivated during the latter half of the past century than it has been
there, or any where else, cither before or since. Robertson, an eminent nurseiyman at
Kilkenny, states (Gard. Mag., vol. vi. p. 27.), tliat within ten or twelve miles of the city,
he could reckon, in 1785, “ a dozen gardens or more, each of which contained pinc-stovcs
from fifty to one hundred feet in Icngtli; and other forcing-houses corresponding well
stocked, and managed by able gardeners from Kew, Hampton Court, and other places
round London.” About that time, tho Countess of Ormond had her table regularly
served through the winter with cucumbers raised in her pinc-stoves, on trellises against
the back w a ll; a practice which has been only recently introduced in the neighbom-hood
of London.
Sect. IV . British Gardening, in respect to the planting o f Timber Trees and Hedges.
681. The British isles were well stocked with timber when comparatively unpeopled
with men. As population increased, culture extended itself, and forests were encroaclied
on or eradicated, to make room for the plough or the scythe. History, as far as it goes
bears witness to tliis state of tilings in England, Scotland, and Leland. ’
Subsect. 1. Gardening in England, in respect to the planting o f Timher Trees and
Hedges.
682. The woods o f England were so numerous and extensive when the Domesday-
book was compiled, as to be valued, not by the quantity of timber, but by the number
o f swine whicli the acorns and mast could maintain. Four liundred years after this, in
the time of Edward IV., an eminent writer says that England was then a wcll-timbercd
counti-y.
683. Till the beginning o f the seventeenth century, the subject o f planting fo r timber and
fu e l seems not to have attracted much attention as an important part of the rural
economy of England. Sir John Norden, in his Surveyor’s Dialogue, published in 1607,
notices the subject; as had been done before by Bencse in 1538, and Fitzherbert in
1523. In 1612 was published, O f planting and preserving o f Timher and Fuel, an old
T h rift newly revived, by R. C .; and in the following year, Directions fo r planting o f
Tirnber and Fire Wood, by Artliur Standish. Planting for timber and copse is noticed
in Googc’s Husbandry, published in 1578 ; and is tho express subject of Manwood’s