After passing through the small town of Liss, the road continued
with the sandhills in perfect barrenness till we approached that
city; whose entrance is decorated with country seats of considerable
magnificence and beautiful flower gardens which supply bulbs to the
horticulturists of their own country, as well as furnish the most
beautiful specimens of flowers to the rest of Europe.
The attention of the cultivation of flower roots and seeds,
independent of the elegance of the pursuit, has by the profits it
has brought become an object of some importance. It is the source
of prosperity to many respectable families, and in some measure
lays all Europe under obligations which are repaid by profit to the
cultivators. The number of flower-gardeners is not above twelve or
thirteen, but the operations of each are very extensive. It is said,
that there are more than twenty acres of land devoted solely to the
cultivation of hyacinths, and a large portion to tulips, and other
flowers. These flowers are principally sold when in full bloom in
Amsterdam, where there is a weekly market on Sunday afternoon, and
the whole of Monday; the trade, however, has vastly declined of late
years, having sunk in weekly returns from 15,000 to 3,000 florins.
The tulip mania which afflicted Holland in the years 1636 and 1637,
and which involved so many families in ruin, has long ceased;
but in 1730, a hyacinth-mania, inferior to it indeed, but equally
ridiculous, prevailed: and speculations were made in those flowers
to a considerable extent, so that some single bulbs were sold as
high as sixty or seventy pounds. There can be no doubt but the taste
for cultivating flower gardens, which has extended itself over
almost the whole of Europe, may be traced to this country, which
furnishes bulbs and seeds till the intervention of successive wars
and their interruptions to communication, induced the other nations
to propagate those flowers at home, whose growth was most congenial
to their soil and climate.