26 PERIOD I. 



life. Under the later Plantagenets the wool-growers 

 of that upland country which stretches from Lincoln- 

 shire to the Bristol Channel showed their wealth by 

 building* a profusion of manor-houses and beautiful 

 perpendicular churches, many of which still remain. 

 There can be little doubt that they were attentive to 

 the rural industries which are so great a source ot 

 comfort and pleasure. 



In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the 

 Flemings, a laborious and enterprising people, inhabit- 

 ing a fertile country, excelled the rest of Europe 

 in agriculture and horticulture. L'Obel, himself a 

 Fleming, speaks with pride of the live plants imported 

 into Flanders from Southern Europe, Asia, Africa, and 

 America. By the close of the sixteenth century, or a 

 few years later, the lilac, lavender, marigold, sun- 

 flower, tulip, and crown-imperial, the cucumber and 

 garden rhubarb, besides many improved varieties of 

 native vegetables, were sent out from Flanders to 

 all parts of Western Europe. During many genera- 

 tions English agriculture and horticulture, and not 

 these alone, but English ship-building, navigation, 

 engineering, and commerce as well, looked to the Low 

 Countries as the chief schools of invention and the 

 chief markets from which new products were to be 

 obtained. 



Late in the sixteenth century a gentleman of the 

 Vivarais (the modern Ardeche), named Olivier de Serres, 

 wrote a book on the management of land, 1 which leaves 

 a strong impression of the zeal for improvement which 

 then pervaded Europe. De Serres was above all 

 things intent upon extending silk-culture in France. 



1 Le Thdatre cT Agriculture^ 1600. 



