JOURNAL OP HORTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ JABuai? 23, 1875. 



pants ebouUl not be started at a high temperature at first, as the 

 days are lengthening — say 50° at night and 10° higher in the day, 

 with Bun heat, and have air admitted to them when lilielyto go 

 beyond that. The Vines, as well as the plants, ought to be 

 syringed twice or thrice a-day, and be shut up early in the after- 

 noon, say by two o'clock, and syringed at that time ; this gives 

 the whole a time for growth in the afternoon, and the atmo- 

 sphere is then most suitable for it. It should be borne in mind 

 that as it is found necessary to increase the heal the moistm-e 

 must also be increased, which not only advances the routing 

 power of the plants but keeps away the red spider. — Thomas 

 Record. 



THE GOLDEN CHAMPION GRAPE. 



In r(aply to Mr. Thomson I write to say that the foliage of 

 the shoot or lateral upon the Trebbiauo Vine which bore the 

 bunch in question differed slightly from the foliage of the 

 other shoots, and became yellow and ripe much earlier, but 

 was not, I think, quite so large as the foliage of the Golden 

 Champion usually is ; the wood or bark of the shoot which 

 bore the bunch in question was also a shade darker than the 

 others. I think I may confidently assure Mr. Thomson that 

 there cannot possibly be any mistake in the matter, as so many 

 people not only saw the buuch but tasted the fruit and minutely 

 examined the same, iucludiug Dr. Hogg, whose eye it caught 

 nearly as soon as he entered the house without having it 

 pointed out, and before he was even aware that such a thing 

 existed. There were four eyes or buds upon the shoot, and I 

 have inserted them all a week or two since. I hope I may suc- 

 ceed in getting them to grow ; and should only two of them do so 

 I shall have pleasure in sending one of them to Mr. Thomson. 



A gentleman in writing to me upon the subject has asked 

 me to take particular care of the bud opposite to the bunch ; 

 but it so happens that no bud formed there, or at most a 

 defective one. as the bunch was produced near to the end of 

 the shoot, and the four buds I have secured were formed under 

 the bunch— that is, between the bunch and the rod. 



As Mr. Thomson justly observes, the subject is certainly 

 interesting. I have stated all particulars as far as I know. 

 I can offer no explanation, but can only hope that modern 

 science may be able to thrmw light upon the matter. — P. Grieve, 

 Culford, Bury St. Edmunds. 



EARLY ENGLISH WRITERS ON GARDENING. 



No. 2. 

 LEONAED MASCALL. 

 The Mascalls are a Sussex family of long standing, and 

 their name seemingly a corruption of the Norman Marescal. 



Fig. 22. 



The founder of the family in Sussex probably came over with 

 William the Conqueror, members of the family being its Sheriff 

 in the reigns of Richard Ccenr de Lion and John. At the 

 Heralds' College their arms are recorded as Sable, six fleur-de- 



lis or, three, two, and one, with a bordure engrailed, argent. 



East Mascalls, a residence in the parish of Linddeld, belonged 



to them ; but the chief mansion 

 of the family was Plumptou 

 Place, in the parish of the 

 same name, about five miles 

 from Lewes. It isa five-gabel- 

 led house, the three centre 

 gables being smaller than the 

 two outer, which advance as 

 the ends of the wings. Mr. 

 Lamb, an architect who pub- 

 lished an illustrated volume 

 on " Ancient Domestic Archi- 

 tecture," gives a view of 

 the place, and concludes his 

 slightly adverse criticism by 

 saying, " The design is chiefly 

 commendable for its simplicity 

 of form and its harmony of 



Fig. 23.— Shield. 



details, and for the absence of all architectural impropriety in 

 the architectural features." He also remarks that it has the 

 appearance of being different tenements, which agrees with its 

 present occupants, who are families of cottagers. It was 

 surrounded by a wide moat, and a drawbridge over in front of 

 the mansion — three sides of the moat remain. It now belongs 

 to the Earl of Chichester. 



The Mascalls were not lords of the manor of Plnmpton, but 

 were its Crown tenants. Leonard Mascall, the especial subject 

 of my notice, was the owner of Plumpton Place. Of the dates 

 of his birth or death I have not been able to obtain particulars, 

 but he certainly lived throughout the reign of Elizabeth and 

 some part of that of James I. duller asserts that he intro- 

 duced carp and Pippins "from ove. the sea;" but he attributes 

 to him the first introduction of that fish, a merit to which ha 

 certainly was not entitled. He may, as has been stated, have 

 introduced carp from the Danube and bred them in the moat 

 of Plumpton Place ; but in an earlier part of the century Dame 

 Juliana Berners in her " Poke of St. Albans " says, " The 

 carpe is a daynteous fyshe ; but there ben but fewe in Eng- 

 lande, and therefore I wryte the lesse of hym." These facts 

 testify that Mascall lived at and strove to add to the attractions 

 of his mansion. They justify the conclusion that he travelled 

 on the continent, and it is certain that he was acquainted with 

 both the French and Dutch languages, and many of the details 

 of grafting and planting are stated by him to have been trans- 

 lated by himself out of those languages. 



Fuller's statement is — " Leonard Mascall being much de- 

 lighted in gardening, man's original vocation, was the first 

 who brought over into England from beyond the seas carps 

 and Pippins ; the one well cooked delicious, the other cordial 

 and restorative. For the proof hereof we have his own word 

 and witness in his book of Fishing, Fowling, and Planting ; 

 and did it, it seems, about the fifth year of the reign of King 

 Henry VIII., anno Domini 1514. The time of his death is to 

 me unknown." — (Fuller's Wortldi'S^Sussex.) The volume 

 Fuller quoted from is entitled, " A Bookeof fishing with hooke 

 and line and of all other instruments thereunto belonging. 

 Another of sundrie engines and trappes to takePoIcats, Buzards, 

 Eattes, Mice, and all other kindes of vermine and beasts what- 

 soever. Made by L. M. 1590." Mascall refers to himself 

 in this passage — " The carpe is a straunge and daintie fish to 

 take. "The first bringer of them into England (as I have been 

 credibly enformed) was maister Mascoll of Plumstedin Sussex, 

 who also brought first the planting of the Pippin in England." 

 The mis-spelling of the names both of the author and his 

 residence may be the printer's errors, but the name of Mascall 

 in those days of phonetic and unfixed spelling occurs in various 

 forms, even as " Mastall." Then as to Plumptou being called 

 Plumsted in the sixteenth century, the change to the modern 

 form may have arisen as the houses and population increased. 

 In Oxfordshire is Stead-ham-ton, literally " the village become 

 a town." There is no mention in the sentence in Mascall'a 

 book that the introduction of carp and Pippins was so remote 

 as 1514, and that date is more applicable to Dame Berners' 

 time. 



In 1572 Mascall published his first work — " A Cooke of the 

 Art and Manner how to graff and plant all sortes of trees, how 

 to set stones and sow Pepins to make wild trees to graS on, as 

 also remedies and medecinee, with other new practices, by one 

 of the Abbey of the St. Vincent in France, with the addition 

 of certain Dutch practices, set forth and Englished by L. M." 



