218 



HAKDWICKE'S SCI E N CE-G O S SIP. 



to bribe bim, tbis great man, poiutiug to tbe pot in 

 wbicb bis vegetables were boiling, answered witb 

 contempt, " I prefer my eartbeu pots to all your 

 vessels of gold and silver ; and it is my wisb to com- 

 mand tbose wbo are in possession of money, wbile I 

 am deprived of it and live in poverty." 



It is most probable tbat tbe garden culture of 

 tbis vegetable was introduced into this country witb 

 some others by tbe Ptomans, but I do not find any 

 mention of it until the IGtb century ; and it 

 has been disputed whether tl;e cultivation of it 

 was revived by nature, industry, or introduced at 

 tbat period by tbe Flemings. 



In the time of Henry VIII. they were eaten 

 baked, or roasted in tbe ashes, and tbe young sboots 

 used as a spring salad ; during the reign of Elizabeth 

 boiled turnips were a favourite dish. Shakespeare 

 makes mention of them in the " Merry Wives of 

 Windsor" (Act 3rd, Scene 4th), wbere "Sweet Ann 

 Page," while resisting Master Slcndcr's suit, appeals 

 to her mother thus: " Good mother, do not marry me 

 to yond fool. Alas ! I liad rather be set quick i' the 

 earth and bowl'd to death with turnips." 



Prom the remarks of Gerard, it would appear 

 that turnips were not much grown in his time, 

 except for domestic purposes. He says of this root, 

 " It groweth in fields and divers vineyards or bop- 

 gardens in most places of England. The small 

 turnip groweth by a village near London, called 

 Hackney, in a sandy ground, and are brought to tbe 

 Cross in Cheapside by the women of that village to 

 be sold, and are the best I ever tasted. The bulbus 

 or knobbed root, which is properly called rapum or 

 turnip, and hath given the name to tlie plant, is 

 many times eaten raw, especially by the poor people 

 in Wales, but most commonly boiled." Cogan, in 

 his " Haven of Health," published in 1597, says, 

 "tbat although many men love to eat turnips, yet 

 do swine abhor them." Parkinson, wbo wrote in 

 ] C29, mentions them as vegetables cultivated in 

 gardens only. In IGGS Worledge published the 

 " Mystery of Husbandry," in which he says, " tbat 

 allhough turnips be usually nourished in gardens 

 and be properly a garden plant, yet are (hey to tbe 

 very great advantage of tbe husbandman, sown in 

 his fields in several places in England, not only for 

 culinary uses, as about London and other large cities, 

 but also for food for cattle." IMiller, in his " Gar- 

 dener's Dictionary," published 1737, describes two 

 kinds of round turnip, one with white and the 

 other with purple roots ; also a yellow and loug- 

 Tooted sort, which he says was formerly more 

 eultivated than at present, for it is now very rare 

 to see either of these brought to tbe markets, 

 though some years since they were sold in as great 

 a plenty as the commoner kind. 



Gardening and agriculture are in some degree 

 allied in their progress and results. Vegetables that 

 tave been first introduced as luxuries into our 



gardens have in time become staple productions of 

 our fields ; and the introduction of turnip-husbandry 

 js one of the most important events in the history 

 of British agriculture. It is said Sir Richard 

 Weston recommended them as an object of field- 

 tillage about the middle of the 17th century ; but 

 tbe cultivation did not make much progress 

 until 1730, when Lord Townshend introduced 

 the culture of them on his estates at Rainbam, in 

 Norfolk. 



Until the commencement of the last century an 

 extensive tract of land of the north-east angle of 

 that county continued very nearly in tbe state of 

 nature, being a district of sheep-walks and rabbit- 

 warrens, and a large portion of tbe soil of a very 

 inferior quality. About the year before mentioned. 

 Lord Townshend, attending King George I. in one 

 of his excursions to Germany, in tbe quality of 

 Secretary of State, observed the turnip cultivated 

 in open and extensive fields, as fodder for cattle, 

 and spreading fertility over lands naturally barren. 

 On his return to England he brought over some of 

 the seed, and strongly recommended the practice he 

 had witnessed to the adoption of his own tenants, 

 wbo occupied a similar soil to tbat of Hanover. 

 Tbe experiment succeeded, and by tbe zealous ex- 

 ertions of Lord Townshend and a few of the neigh- 

 bouring landouTiers, great improvements have been 

 effected, and the country has become one of the 

 mostproductiveagrieultural districts in the kingdom. 

 Some of tbe finest corn crops in the world are now- 

 grown on lands which, before the introduction of the 

 turnip husbandry, produced a very scanty supply of 

 grass for a few lean and half-starved rabbits. If we 

 were, therefore, asked to point out tbe individual 

 who has proved one of the greatest benefactors to 

 the agricultural interest of the country, we should 

 not hesitate to fix upon the ingenious nobleman 

 whom the wits and courtiers of bis own day wDre 

 pleased to laugh at as "Turnip Townshend;" for the 

 turnip-culture which be introduced from Hanover 

 has spread itself throughout this kingdom, and now 

 yields an annual return which probably exceeds the 

 interest of our national debt. In some districts, 

 however, strange prejudices were long entertained 

 against this root as a field crop, and many amusing 

 stories are told of the way in which they were over- 

 come. In Johnson's "Useful Plants of Great 

 Britain," it is mentioned that a landlord in South 

 Wales whose tenants resolutely adhered to their 

 opinion that no sheep would touch the plant, though 

 assured tbat it already formed the principal winter 

 food of the fine breeds of tbe east of England, sowed 

 some turnips upon an unfenced field by the roadside; 

 they were greedily devoured by a flock straying from 

 the hills; and by impounding the trespassers he 

 at last convinced their owners that the roots 

 the latter despised were relished by their sheep, 

 and thus succeeded in inducing the stubborn 



