Fobraary 18, 1875. ] 



JOUaNA,Ii OF HOilTIODLTDRa AND OOTTAQE QABDENEE. 



lis 



after cutting down their old Vines within a foot or more from 

 the ground, were to layer them in fresh loam iilong an inside 

 border where they have an advantage of artificial heat, and 

 allow one or two new oaues to form from the layer. Thoy would 

 find, with careful management and a watchful eye, that in a 

 few years they would reap the fruits of their labour equally as 

 good as from young Vines, and iu much less time than they 

 could grow young Vines from eyes.— H. S., llingwood Gardens. 



EARLY WRITERS ON ENGLISH GARDENING. 



No. 3. 

 JOHN GEBAEDE. 



Gkbaede, or Gerard, for it was spelt both w.iy.?, was the Philip 

 Miller of his time, for he was a gardener as well as botanist, 

 and in luU7 he thus 

 states his occupation iu 

 his ■ address to Lojd 



Burleigh : " Under 



your Lordship I have 

 served now by the space 

 of twenty years. To 

 the large and singular 

 of this noble Island I 

 have added from for- 

 reino places all the va- 

 rietie of herbes and 

 flonres that I might 

 any way obtaine. I 

 have laboured with the 

 soile to make it fit for 

 plants — what my suc- 

 cesso hath beene, and 

 what my furniture is I 

 leave to the report of 

 them that have seen 

 your Lordship's gar- 

 dens, and the little plot 

 of myne owne especiall 

 care & husbandry." 



Where that "little 

 plot " was situated is 

 not exactly known, but 

 he has told us of its 

 whereabouts, for he 

 dates his address to 

 ills Herbal's readers ; — 

 " From my house in 

 Holborn within the sub- 

 urbs of London, this 

 first of December, 

 15D7." I incline to 

 believe that his housa 

 »nd garden were about 

 where Ely Place and 

 aatton Garden are now, 

 and from whence he 

 could readily walk to 

 his patron's. Lord Eur- 

 leigh's, garden, now oc- 

 cupied partly by Bur- 

 leigh and Cucil Streets 

 In the Strand. He could visit at the same time another " little 

 plot " of his own, for among the public records are the follow- 

 ing :—" Anne Queene of England, &e., for the sum of five 

 shillings by way of fine paid by John Gerrard of London surgeon 

 and herbarist to the King, and for other considerations, but 

 especially of his singular and approved art, skill, and minstrie 

 iu planting, nursing, and preserving of plants, hearbes, 

 flowers, and fruits of all kinds, do grant and let to him one 

 garden plott belonging and adjoining to the east part of 

 Somersett or Strand House, abutting on the west wall of the 

 said house, on the east on Strand Lane, on the south on the 

 bank of the River of Thames, and on the north on the back 

 side of the house standing in the high street called the Strand, 

 the said plott containing about two acres, and to be held by 

 him, his executors, administrators, and assigns from the feast 

 of 3t. Michael next ensuing, for the term of the Queen's life, 

 and for 21 years, paying annually a rent of four pence, to be paid 

 quarterly, and yielding for our own use at the proper seasons 

 of the year a convenient quantity of herbes, flowers, and 

 fruits growing in the said garden, by the art and industry of 



the said John Gerrard, if they be Uwfully demanded of him. 

 Given under our seal at Whitehall, the 11th of August, in the 

 reign of the King the 38th (of Sotlaud). Endorsed by T. Pi. 

 Ewens, auditor, 30th August, IGOl." 

 On the back of the Grant is written : — 

 " '27th of .June, lUU. Whereas the Queen by her deed dated 

 14th day of August, iu the second year of the reign of James, 

 did grant a garden plott belonging to Somersett House unto 

 John Gerrard, Surgeon, for her life, which John Gerrard by 

 deed dated 2Cth November, 3fd of James (KiUo), granted all 

 his estate therein to Robert Earle of Salisbury, who by in- 

 denture dated 8th day of April iu the Hth year of the reign of 

 James, granted the same to William Goodroud, Surgeon, for 

 twenty years, who afterwards granted and surrendered it to 

 him igain, and the Earl again surrendered it to the Queen." 



Queen Anne who 

 granted the plot to Ger- 

 arde was the consort of 

 James I. She had 

 Somerset House as- 

 signed to her as a 

 palace, and her con- 

 temporary Howes re- 

 cords — 



" Shrove-tuesday,the 

 fourth of March, this 

 year ICIG, the Queene 

 feasted the King at her 

 Pallace in the Strand, 

 formerly called Somer- 

 eett-honse, and then the 

 King commanded it 

 should no more be so 

 called, but that it should 

 from henceforth bee 

 called Denmarke-house, 

 which said Denmarke- 

 house the Queene had 

 many wayes repaired, 

 beautified. new builded, 

 and enlarged, and 

 brought to it a pipe of 

 Conduit water from 

 Hyde-park." 



It is very near the 

 truth, if not quite, to 

 state that the biogra- 

 phers of our oldest 

 authors troubled them- 

 selves very little to be 

 accurate in the dates of 

 events of the lives of 

 those about v hom they 

 wrote. If one biogra- 

 pher assigned a date, 

 subsequent biographers 

 accepted it without test- 

 ing its accuracy. The 

 death time of Gerarde 

 is an example. All who 

 have written about him 

 state that he died in 

 1007. As he lived and died in Holborn, it would have been 

 easy to consult the registers of St. Andrew's Church in that 

 parish, but no one ever did until within a few days of my 

 writing this I turned over the parchment leaves of those well- 

 kept registers, and in them found this entry : — 



"Mr. -John Gerrard, freeman of the Barber Chirurgeons, 

 buried the xviii February, 1011." That would have been 1012 

 had the year then as now commenced in January. 



Gerarde was evidently a parishioner of consideration, for he 

 is the only one in that and ot'uer years with the prefix of " Mr." 

 All other's have at the most merely their Christian and sur- 

 names recorded, whilst too many have such a totally useless 

 record as " A poor man " or " A maid from John Smith's," 

 " buried this day." 



Contrarv to the usual order of biography I have recorded 

 Gerarde's death without any reference to his birth and parent- 

 age, an omission caused by ray hoping to obtain fuller and 

 original information. This hope ha^ not been gratified, for 

 the Rev. Jortin G. Blackburno, iu courteous replies to my in- 

 quiries, states that there is no entry of the baptism of Gerarde 



■Born 15l5 at Xampturicb, iu Cueshii-e, anil died at London in ,1611-2. 



