the Orchards of this _deep and rich_ county:--"From the greatest person
to the poorest cottager, all habitations are encompassed with orchards,
and gardens, and in most places our hedges are enriched with rows of
fruit trees, pears or apples. All our villages, and generally all our
highways, (all our vales being thick set with rows of villages), are in
the spring time sweetened and beautified with the blossomed trees, which
continue their changeable varieties of ornament, till (in the end of
autumn), they fill our garners with pleasant fruit, and our cellars with
rich and winy liquors. Orchards, being the pride of our county, do not
only sweeten, but also purify the ambient air, which I conceive to
conduce very much to the constant health and long lives for which our
county hath always been famous. We do commonly devise a shadowy walk
from our gardens, through our orchards (which is the richest, sweetest,
and most embellished grove) into our coppice woods, or timber woods."
Dr. Beale does not praise the whole of their land. He describes some as
"starvy, chapt, and cheany, as the basest land upon the Welch
mountains." He makes amends, however, for this, for he describes the
nags bred on their high grounds, as very different from our present
hackney-coach horses; they "are airey and sinewy, full of spirits and
vigour, in shape like the _barbe_, they rid ground, and gather courage
and delight in their own speed."
[33] A Lady Gerard is mentioned in two letters of Mr. Pope, to W.
Fortescue, Esq. They have no date to them. They appear in Polwhele's
History of Devonshire. "I have just received a note from Mrs. Blount,
that she and Lady Gerard will dine here to-day." And "Lady Gerard was to
see Chiswick Gardens (as I imagined) and therefore forced to go from
hence by five; it was a mortification to Mrs. Blount to go, when there
was a hope of seeing you and Mr. Fortescue." There are three more
letters, without date, to Martha Blount, written from the Wells at
Bristol, and from Stowe, in which Pope says, "I have no more room but to
give Lady Gerard my hearty services." And "once more my services to Lady
Gerard." "I desire you will write a post-letter to my man John, at what
time you would have the pine apples, to send to Lady Gerard." Probably
Martha Blount's Lady Gerard was a descendant of Rea's.
[34] A most curious account of the _Tulipomania_, or rage for tulips,
formerly in Holland, may be seen in Phillips's Flora Historica.
[35] Perhaps no one more truly painted rich pastoral scenes than Isaac
Walton. This occurs in many, many pages of his delightful _Angler_. The
late ardently gifted, and most justly lamented Sir Humphry Davy too, in
his _Salmonia_, has fondly caught the charms of Walton's pages. His pen
riots in the wild, the beautiful, the sweet, delicious scenery of
nature:--"how delightful in the early spring, to wander forth by some
clear stream, to see the leaf bursting from the purple bud, to scent the
odours of the bank, perfumed by the violet, and enamelled as it were
with the primrose, and the daisy; to wander upon the fresh turf below
the shade of trees, whose bright blossoms are filled with the music of
the bee." Mr. Worlidge, in his Systema Agriculturae, says, that the
delights in angling "rouzes up the ingenious early in the spring
mornings, that they have the benefit of the sweet and pleasant morning
air, which many through sluggishness enjoy not; so that health (the
greatest treasure that mortals enjoy) and pleasure, go hand in hand in
this exercise. What can be more said of it, than that the most
ingenious, most use it." Mr. Whately, in his usual charming style, thus
paints the spring:--"Whatever tends to animate the scene, accords with
the season, which is full of youth and vigour, fresh and sprightly,
brightened by the verdure of the herbage, and the woods, gay with
blossoms, and flowers, and enlivened by the songs of the birds in all
their variety, from the rude joy of the skylark, to the delicacy of the
nightingale."
[36] Tusser seems somewhat of Meager's opinion:--
Sow peason and beans, in the wane of the moon,
Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon;
That they with the planet may rest and arise,
And flourish, with bearing most plentifull wise.
The celebrated Quintinye says, "I solemnly declare, that after a
diligent observation of the moon's changes for thirty years together,
and an enquiry whether they had any influence in gardening, the
affirmative of which has been so long established among us, I perceive
it was no weightier than old wives' tales."
The moon (says Mr. Mavor) having an influence on the tides and the
weather, she was formerly supposed to extend her power over all nature.
There is a treatise, by _Claude Gadrois_, on the _Influences des
Astres_. Surely this merits perusal, when the Nouv. Dict. Hist. thus
speaks of him:--"Il etoit ami du celebre Arnauld et meritoit de l'etre
par _la justesse de son esprit_ et la purete de ses moeurs, par la bonte
de son caractere et par la droiture de son coeur."
The following wise experiment occurs in an ancient book on husbandry;
but if the two parties there mentioned had lived with Leonard Meager,
one must not do him the injustice of supposing he would have been a
convert to their opinion:--"_Archibius_ is said to have written (or sent
word most likely) to _Antiochus_, king of _Syria_, that if you bury a
speckled toad inclosed in an earthen pot, in the middle of your garden,
the same will be defended from all hurtful weather and tempests."
Meager, however, is kept in countenance by Mr. Worlidge, who, in his
chapter of Prognostics, at the end of his interesting Systemae
Agriculturae, actually states that
If dog's guts rumble and make a noise, it presageth rain or snow.
The cat, by washing her face, and putting her foot over her ear,
foreshews rain.
The squeaking and skipping up and down of mice and rats, portend rain.
Leonard Meager thus notices a nurseryman of his day:--"Here follows a
catalogue of divers sorts of fruits, which I had of my very loving
friend, Captain Garrle, dwelling at the great nursery between
Spittlefields and Whitechapel; a very eminent and ingenious nurseryman."
Perhaps this is the same nurseryman that Rea, in his _Pomona_, mentions.
He says (after naming some excellent pear-trees) "they may be had out of
the nurseries about London, especially those of Mr. Daniel Stepping, and
Mr. Leonard _Girle_, who will faithfully furnish such as desire these,
or any other kinds of rare fruit-trees, of whose fidelity in the
delivery of right kinds, I have had long experience in divers
particulars, a virtue not common to men of that profession." At this
period, the space between Spittlefields and Whitechapel, must have
consisted of gardens, and perhaps superb country houses. The Earl of
Devonshire had a fine house and garden near Petticoat-lane. Sir W.
Raleigh had one near Mile-end. Some one (I forget the author) says, "On
both sides of this lane (Petticoat-lane) were anciently hedges and rows
of elm trees, and the pleasantness of the neighbouring fields induced
several gentlemen to build their houses here; among whom was the Spanish
Ambassador, whom Strype supposes was Gondamour." Gondamour was the
person to please whom (or rather that James might the more easily marry
his son Charles to one of the daughters of Spain, with her immense
fortune) this weak monarch was urged to sacrifice the life of Raleigh.
Within one's own memory, it is painful to reflect, on the many pleasant
fields, neat paddocks, rural walks, and gardens, (breathing pure air)
that surrounded this metropolis for miles, and miles, and which are now
ill exchanged for an immense number of new streets, many of them the
receptacles only of smoke and unhealthiness.
[37] These lines are from him, at whose death (says Sir W. Scott in his
generous and glowing eulogy) we were stunned "by one of those
death-notes which are peeled at intervals, as from an archangel's
trumpet"--they are from "that mighty genius which walked amongst men as
something superior to ordinary mortality, and whose powers were beheld
with wonder, and something approaching to terror, as if we knew not
whether they were of good or evil"--they are from "that noble tree which
will never more bear fruit, or blossom! which has been cut down in its
strength, and the past is all that remains to us of Byron: whose
excellences will _now_ be universally acknowledged, and his faults (let
us hope and believe) not remembered in his epitaph." His "deep
transported mind" (to apply Milton's words to him) thus continues his
moralization:--
What are the hopes of man? old Egypt's king
CHEOPS, erected the first pyramid,
And largest; thinking it was just the thing
To keep his memory whole, and mummy hid;
But somebody or other rummaging,
Burglariously broke his coffin's lid:
Let not a monument give you, or me, hopes,
Since not a pinch of dust remains of CHEOPS.
The Quarterly Review, in reviewing Light's Travels, observes, that
"Cheops employed three hundred and sixty thousand of his subjects for
twenty years in raising this pyramid, or pile of stones, equal in weight
to six millions of tons; and to render his precious dust more secure,
the narrow chamber was made accessible only by small intricate passages,
obstructed by stones of an enormous weight, and so carefully closed,
externally, as not to be perceptible. Yet how vain are all the
precautions of man! Not a bone was left of Cheops, either in the stone
coffin, or in the vault, when Shaw entered the gloomy chamber." Sir
Walter Scott himself, has justly received many eulogies. Perhaps none
more heart-felt, than the effusion delivered at a late Celtic meeting,
by that eloquent and honest lawyer, the present Lord Chief Justice of
the Court of Exchequer, in Scotland, which was received by long, loud,
and continued applause.
[38] John Bauhine wrote a Treatise in 1591, De Plantis a Divis sanctisve
nomen habentibus.
Their Preface to the above Vol. ii. has this observation: "Plants, when
taken from the places whence they derive their extraction, and planted
in others of different qualities, _betray such fondness for their native
earth_, that with great difficulty they are brought to thrive in
another; and in this it is that the florist's art consists; for _to
humour each plant_ with the soil, the sun, the shade, the degrees of
dryness or moisture, and the neighbourhood it delights in, (for there is
a natural antipathy between some plants, insomuch that they will not
thrive near one another) are things not easily attainable, but by a
length of study and application."
[39] What these ruffles and lashes were, I know not. Perhaps the words
of Johnson may apply to them:--
Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart,
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.
This mournful truth is every where confess'd,
Slow rises worth, by poverty oppress'd.
[40] Barnaby Gooche, in his Chapter on Gardens, calls the sun "the
captaine and authour of the other lights, _the very soule of the
world_."
[41] A translation of De Lille's garden thus pleads:--
Oh! by those shades, beneath whose evening bowers
The village dancers tripp'd the frolic hours;
By those deep tufts that show'd your fathers' tombs,
Spare, ye profane, their venerable glooms!
To violate their sacred age, beware,
Which e'en the awe-struck hand of time doth spare.
[42] Mr. Whateley observes, that "The whole range of nature is open to
him, (the landscape gardener) from the parterre to the forest; and
whatever is agreeable to the senses, or the imagination, he may
appropriate to the spot he is to improve; it is a part of his business
to collect into one place, the delights which are generally dispersed
through different species of country."
[43] At page 24 he says, "_Cato_, one of the most celebrated writers on
Husbandry and Gardening among the Romans, (who, as appears by his
Introduction, took the model of his precepts from the _Greeks_) in his
excellent Treatise _De Re Rustica_, has given so great an encomium on
the excellence and uses of this good plant, (the Brocoli) not only as to
its goodness in eating, but also in physick and pharmacy, that makes it
esteemed one of the best plants either the field or garden produces."
[44] His Chapter on the Water-Works of the Ancient Romans, French, &c.
is charmingly written. Those who delight in the formation of rivers,
fountains, falls of water, or cascades, as decorations to their gardens,
may inspect this ingenious man's Hydrostatics. And another specimen of
his genius may be seen in the magnificent iron gateway now remaining at
_Leeswood_, near Mold, and of which a print is given in Pugh's _Cambria
Depicta_.
[45] In this volume is a letter written to Switzer, from his "ingenious
friend Mr. Thomas Knowlton, Gardener to the Earl of Burlington, who, on
account of his own industry, and the opportunity he has had of being
educated under the late learned Dr. Sherrard, claims a very advanced
place in the list of Botanists." This letter is dated Lansborough, July,
1728. I insert part of this letter:--"I hope, Sir, you will excuse the
freedom I take in giving you my opinion, having always had a respect for
your endeavours in Husbandry and Gardening, ever since you commenced an
author. Your introduction to, and manner of handling those beloved
subjects, (the sale of which I have endeavoured to promote) is in great
esteem with me; being (as I think) the most useful of any that have been
wrote on these useful subjects. If on any subject, you shall hereafter
revise or write farther upon, any communication of mine will be useful
or serviceable to you, I shall be very ready to do it. I heartily wish
you success in whatever you undertake, as it tends to a publick good."
Dr. Pulteney says of Knowlton, "His zeal for English Botany was
uncommonly great, and recommended him successfully to the learned
Botanists of this country. From Sir Hans Sloane, he received eminent
civilities."
[46] few short notices occur of names formerly eminent in
gardening:--"My late ingenious and laborious friend, Mr. _Oram_,
Nurseryman, of Brompton-lane."
"That great virtuoso and encourager of gardening, Mr. Secretary Johnson,
at Twickenham."
"Their beautiful aspects in pots, (the nonpareil) and the middle of a
desert, has been the glory of one of the most generous encouragers of
gardening this age has produced, I mean the Right Honourable the Lord
Castlemain."
"The late noble and most publick spirited encourager of arts and
sciences, especially gardening, his Grace the Duke of Montague, at
Ditton."
"The Elrouge Nectarine is also a native of our own, the name being the
reverse of _Gourle_, a famous Nurseryman at Hogsden, in King Charles the
Second's time, by whom it was raised."
And speaking of the successful cultivation of vines in the open air, he
refers to the garden of a Mr. _Rigaud_, near _Swallow-street_; and to
another great cultivator of the vine, "of whose friendship I have proof,
the Rev. Mr. _Only_, of _Cottesmore_, in Rutland, some time since
deceased; one of the most curious lovers of gardening that this or any
other age has produced." This gentleman, in 1765, published "An Account
of the care taken in most civilized nations for the relief of the poor,
more particularly in the time of scarcity and distress;" 4to. 1s. Davis.
I believe the same gentleman also published, in 1765, a Treatise "Of the
Price of Wheat."
[47] Lord Bacon says, "Because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in
the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of musick) than in
the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know
what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air." The Prince
de Ligne says,
Je ne veux point avoir l'orgueilleuse tulipe;
_L'odorat en jardin_ est mon premier principe.
The translation of _Spectacle de la Nature_, a very pleasing work,
observes that "Flowers are not only intended to beautify the earth with
their shining colours, but the greatest part of them, in order to render
the entertainment more exquisite, diffuse a fragrance that perfumes all
the air around us; and it should seem as if they were solicitous to
_reserve their odours for the evening and morn_, when walking is most
agreeable; but their sweets are very faint during the heat of the day,
when we visit them the least."
I must again trespass on the pages of the great Bacon, by briefly
shewing the _natural wildness_ he wishes to introduce into one part of
his garden:--"thickets, made only of sweet-briar and honeysuckle, and
some wild vine amongst, and the ground set with violets, strawberries,
and primroses; for these are sweet, and prosper in the shade."
The dew or pearly drops that one sees in a morning on cowslips, remind
one of what is said of Mignon:--"Ses ouvrages sont precieux par l'art
avec le quel il representoit les fleurs dans tout leur eclat, et les
fruits avec toute leur fraicheur. La rosee et les goutes d'eau qu'elle
repand sur les fleurs, sont si bien imitees dans ses tableaux, qu'on est
tente d'y porter la main." It is said also that in the works of
Van-Huysum, "le veloute des fruits, l'eclat des fleurs, le transparent
de la rosee, tout enchante dans les tableaux de ce peintre admirable."
Sir U. Price observes of this latter painter, "that nature herself is
hardly more soft and delicate in her most delicate productions, than the
copies of them by Van-Huysum." Two flower pieces by this painter, sold
at the Houghton sale for 1200_l._
In the pieces of _Bos_, a Flemish painter, the dew was represented so
much like nature, as to deserve universal approbation.
Bernazzano painted strawberries on a wall so naturally, that, we are
told, the plaster was torn down by the frequent pecking of peacocks.
Amidst these celebrated painters, these admiring judges of nature, let
us not forget our never-dying Hogarth; his piercing eye even discovers
itself in his letter to Mr. Ellis, the naturalist:--"As for your pretty
little seed cups, or vases, they are a sweet confirmation of the
pleasure nature seems to take in superadding an elegance of form to most
of her works, wherever you find them. How poor and bungling are all the
inventions of art!"
[48] The very numerous works of this indefatigable writer, embracing so
many subjects, make one think he must have been as careful of his time,
as the celebrated friend of the witty _Boileau_: the humane, benevolent,
and dignified Chancellor _Aguesseau_, who finding that his wife always
kept him waiting an hour after the dinner bell had rung, resolved to
devote this time to writing a work on Jurisprudence. He put this project
in execution, and in the course of time, produced a quarto work in four
thick volumes.
[49] This chesnut tree is thus noticed in a newspaper of August,
1829:--"The celebrated chesnut tree, the property of Lord Ducie, at
Tortworth, in the county of Gloucester, is the oldest, if not the
largest tree in England, having this year attained the age of 1002
years, and being 52 feet in circumference, and yet retains so much
vigour, that it bore nuts so lately as two years ago, from which young
trees are now being raised."
[50] There is an 8vo. published in 1717, called the "Lady's Recreation,"
by _Charles_ Evelyn, Esq. There are two letters subjoined, written to
this author by the Rev. Mr. Lawrence. From page 103, 105, 129 and 141,
one should think this was not the son of the famous Mr. Evelyn. I now
find, that Mr. Lawrence, in the Preface to his Kalendar, inserted at the
end of his fifth edition, assures the public, "that the book called the
Lady's Recreation could not be published by my approbation, because it
was never seen by me till it was in print; besides, I have reason to
think it was an artifice of the booksellers to impose upon the world,
under the borrowed name of Evelyn."
[51] This sermon was preached for several years by Dr. Colin Milne, by
whom it was published in 1799, and afterwards by the Rev. Mr. Ellis, of
Merchant Taylors' School. Mr. Ellis, in his History of Shoreditch, gives
us much information as to this bequest; in which the handsome conduct of
Mr. Denne, a former vicar, is not the least interesting. Mr. Nichols, in
vol. iii. of his Literary Anecdotes, bears testimony to Dr. Denne's
feeling towards the poor and distressed, and to his attachment to
literary pursuits. Three of these Sermons are in the second volume of
"Thirty Sermons on Moral and Religious Subjects, by the Rev. W. Jones;"
2 vols. 8vo. 1790, price 16s. There are other editions of Mr. Jones's
Sermons, viz. Rev. W. Jones, of Nayland, his Theological, Philosophical,
and Miscellaneous Works, with Life, 12 vols. 8vo. _neat_, 7_l._ 7_s._
6_d._ 1801. Sermons by the late Rev. William Jones, of Nayland, Suffolk:
Chaplain to the Right Rev. George Horne, Bishop of Norwich; 1 vol. 8vo.
with Portrait of the Author, price 12_s._ Dove, St. John's Square,
Printer, 1828. "Of this faithful servant of God, (the Rev. W. Jones) I
can speak both from personal knowledge and from his writings. He was a
man of quick penetration, of extensive learning, and the soundest piety;
and he had, beyond any other man I ever knew, the talent of writing upon
the deepest subjects to the plainest understandings."--_Bishop Horsley's
Charges._ The Rev. Samuel Ayscough, of the British Museum, began, in
1790, to preach this annual sermon, and, I believe, continued it for
fourteen years.
[52] Mr. Ellis, of _Little Gaddesden_, in his Practical Farmer, 8vo.
1732, thus speaks on this subject:--"What a charming sight is a large
tree in blossom, and after that, when loaden with fruit, enough perhaps
to make a hogshead of cyder or perry! A scene of beauty, hopes, and
profit, and all! It may be on less than two feet diameter of ground. And
above all, what matter of contemplation does it afford, when we let our
thoughts descend to a single kernel of an apple or pear? And again, how
heightened, on the beholding so great a bulk raised and preserved, by
Omnipotent Power, from so small a body."
[53] The thought of planting the sides of public roads, was first
suggested by the great _Sully_.
[54] Mr. Weston, in his introduction to these Tracts, seems to have
pleasure in recording the following anecdote of La Quintinye, from
Harte's Essay. "The famous La Quintinie, director of the royal gardens
in France, obtained from Louis XIV. an abbacy for his son, in one of the
remote provinces; and going soon afterwards to make the abbot a visit,
(who was not then settled in his apartments) he was entertained and
lodged by a neighbouring gentleman with great friendliness and
hospitality. La Quintinie, as was natural, soon examined the gardens of
his host; he found the situation beautiful, and the soil excellent; but
every thing was rude, savage, and neglected: nature had done much, art
nothing. The guest, delighted with his friendly reception, took leave
with regret, and some months after, sent one of the king's gardeners,
and four under-gardeners, to the gentleman, with strict command to
accept of no gratuity. They took possession of his little inclosure the
moment they arrived, and having digged it many times over, they manured,
replanted it, and left one of their number behind them, as a settled
servant in the family. This young man was soon solicited to assist the
neighbourhood, and filled their kitchen gardens and fruit gardens with
the _best_ productions of every kind, which are preserved and propagated
to this very hour."
It is pleasing to enquire who Mons. de la Quintinye was. _Perrault_, in
his _Hommes Illustres_, has given his Life, and Portrait. Dr. Gibson, in
his Fruit Gardener, calls him "truly an original author;" and further
pays him high compliments.