7 



EET. J. C. CLUTTEEBTJCK PKODUCTS OF HEKTFOEDSHIRE. 4 



Nuneham in Oxfordshire being removed to another site, and one 

 old woman having refused to quit her hovel, which she was per- 

 mitted to retain till her death, a "widowed solitary thing," the 

 spot where she lived is to this day marked by a tree, named " Bab's 

 Tree." Some have identified the wretched matron of Goldsmith 

 Avith "Widow Bab of Nuneham. More than doubtful as this story 

 is, there is no doubt that the systematic cultivation of the mantling 

 cress was begun in Hertfordshire by Mr. Bradbury, at West Hyde, 

 in the parish of Rickmansworth. He began by renting the ditches 

 of the occupier of a farm in the valley of the Colne. From a small 

 beginning, by cleansing and widening, he increased the area of the 

 beds, regulating the height of the water by artificial dams, and select- 

 ing the best sort of watercress, of which that known as the Dutch 

 brown is preferred. Thus Bradbury's cultivated watercress be- 

 came a regular article of trafiic in the London market, and claimed 

 for Hertfordshire and Mr. Bradbury the credit of converting a 

 wild plant into a systematically cultivated product, the present 

 commercial value of which it would be difiicult to calculate, or to 

 estimate the area now occupied by its cultivation. I am told that 

 Mr. Bradbury was first encouraged in his expensive experiments by 

 the assistance of the late Mr. Simeon Howard, of Troy, whose 

 ditches he first rented ; — not the Troy of Homer ; yet, by a 

 somewhat curious coincidence, my son tells me that when serving 

 on board H.M.S. "Triumph," in Besika Bay, he found luxuriously 

 growing watercresses, at the Seven Springs, one of the sources 

 feeding the classical Scamander, — a place often fixed on for re- 

 freshment, as furnishing the wild watercress, a welcome addition 

 to the mid-duy meal. Few persons are probably aware of the 

 amount of labour and skill required in the cultivation of this 

 simple but highly valued plant. The water must be pure, and 

 flow from the gravel, or immediately from the chalk, and must 

 be constant and well regulated. It must be protected from the 

 ravages of birds, especially the blackbird at certain seasons, and 

 be the object of unremitting care and supervision during the greater 

 portion of the year. 



Among the other experiments to extend the produce of the 

 county may be included the growth of hops; this has been done, in 

 one case at least, with some qualified success. There seems at first 

 sight to be no reason why, on the deep loams found in certain spots, 

 the hop should not flourish as well as in parts of Surrey, Sussex, 

 and Kent. The introduction of a new industry, and especially one 

 which requires peculiar knowledge and skill, such as the growth and 

 cultivation of a plant in all its stages, as the hop plant presents 

 in limine, is not easily surmounted. As the management of the 

 hop garden is not understood either by the farmer or labourer of 

 Hertfordshire, and as the sites fitted for the purpose are few and 

 far between, and as the soil to the north, which by its quality is 

 most fitted for its production, lacks that natural and artificial 

 shelter which the hop requires, there seems to be abundant reason 

 why the experiment of its growth has been so little ventured upon. 



