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JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ AprU 1, 1875. 



in some shape or another. Should anything feasible of this 

 kind turn up, I and my friends will be ready to give it their 

 support. If not, and the Council stick to their policy of 

 making use of these usurper's powers to retain the lease and 

 starve the Society, then I counsel on the part of my brother 

 horticulturists a firm, compact, and persistent opposition to 

 an evil and selfish influence. — B. Tketob Claeke, Wclton 

 Place. 



EARLY WRITERS ON ENGLISH GARDENING. 



No. 4. 

 SIE HUGH PLATT. 



An inventor who devotes himself to the completion of some 

 one work which if effected will be of national importance is 

 worthy of admiration — such men were Arkwright perfecter of 

 the spinning jenny, Watts of the steam engine, Wedgewood 

 of porcelain, and Stephenson of the railway system; but a 

 schemer — a man who potters over small things, all insignifi- 

 cant, and flitting from one to others as unimportant, is one 

 who is usually an annoyance and too often a mere waster of 

 his time and money. Such a man was Sir Hugh Piatt. 



I have vainly sought to discover his parentage and the place 

 and date of his birth, but it is evident that early in life he was 

 in the metropolis, for he tells in one of his prefaces that "he 

 had drawn the longest line of his life within the lists and 

 limits of London." 



In the Eegister of Lincolns Inn is recorded that on the 4th 

 day of May in the thirteenth year of Elizabeth's reign he was 

 admitted a student, introduced by John Pinkerynge and 

 Thomas Lodge. He was therefore entered as a student in 1571. 

 He probably was then about twenty, and if so would be only 

 fifty-seven at the time of his death in 1608. This date last 

 named is certain, for he executed his will on the 19th of October, 

 1608, and he died between that day and the 1st of November of 

 the same year, on which day the will was proved. He describes 

 himself as of Stepney in the county of Middlesex, knight, and 

 wisely, being a lawyer, made his will very plain and brief. 

 Having previously provided for his sons, he left his wife Judith 

 all his property and sole executrix, relying that she would pro- 

 vide for their daughter of the same christian name, and speci- 

 fies none of his property except a brewhouse in the City with 

 other houses thereto belonging. 



Charles Bellingham, who edited the sixth edition of Sir 

 Hugh's "The Garden of Eden," speaks in its dedication of 

 his " near alliance " to Sir Hugh, and it is not improbable 

 that Bellingham had married the daughter mentioned in his 

 will. 



The sons seem to have been well provided for and prospered, 

 for in Hornsey Church is a monument to the memory of 

 William Piatt, founder of some fellowships in St. John's 

 College, Cambridge. He died in 1637; and the inscription tells 

 that he was son of Sir Hugh Piatt of Kirby Castle, Bethnal 

 Green, which then was included in Stepney parish. That 

 monument, kept in repair by St. John's College, bears testi- 

 mony to the good position of the Piatt family, for on it are 

 blazoned more than thirty coats of arms of families allied to 

 it. The wife of Sir Hugh had pre-deceased that son two years, 

 for in the register of the same church is this entry, " The 

 Honourable Judith Piatt, wife of Hugh Piatt, Knight, buried 

 January 28th, 1635." 'The wife of Robert, another of Sir 

 Hugh's sous, was also there buried in 1656. Lysons thinks 

 that it was also Sir Hugh's burial place ; but there are no 

 registers of the date when his death occurred. 



In 1594 Sir Hugh resided at Bishop's Hall, about a quarter 

 of a mile eastward of Bethnal Green, a residence of Bishop 

 Bonner's, if he was not also its builder. But Sir Hugh at the 

 time of his death resided at Kirby Castle. It was built in 

 Queen Elizabeth's reign (1570) by Thorpe, the architect of 

 Holland House, for John Kirby, a Loudon citizen, and who 

 seems to have suffered from the over-expenditure. He, as well 

 as other sufferers from a similar cause, was satirised in a 

 doggerel rhyme — 



" Kirkeby's Castell and Fidher's Follia, 

 Spiuila'a Pleasure and Mease's Glorio." 



Kitby Castle was built on the site previously known as 

 " The Blind Beggar's House." That " beggar," believed to be 

 a son of Simon do Montfort, Earl of Leicester, was left for 

 dead at the Battle of Evesham in Henry Ill.'s reign ; but a 

 baron's daughter searching for her father's body found young 

 de Montfort, married him, and for safety they assumed the 



character of beggars. Their only child was the " pretty 

 Bessie" of the ballad in the Percy " Eeliquea." 



' " My father," shee said, " is soone to be seene, 

 The sOly blind beggar of Bednall Green, 

 That daylye sits begging for charitie, 

 He is the good father of pretty Bessie." ' 



In those days no societies existed for the promotion of botany 

 or gardening where those who delighted in their cultivation 

 could associate. The only substitute for such societies was 

 acquiring an intimacy and correspondence with congenial fellow 

 students. This was done by Sir Hugh, who, Bellingham says, 

 had communications with every gardener of any note in Eng- 

 land who tested his suggestions, and among them were Hill, 

 Taverner, Pointer, and others who are also mentioned by 

 Gerarde. They deserve a brief memorial here. Sir Hugh 

 directs how Carnations, Gilliflowers, and Pinks may be grafted 

 " upon one root of Carnations ;" and he says this was imparted 

 to him by " Mr. Jarret, the chyrurgeon in Holborn." Gerarde 

 also knew him, and describes him as " a curious searcher of 

 simples." Tulips were one of his especial favourites, propa- 

 gating them by seeds and offsets for twenty years, and every 

 season producing "new plants of sundry colours not seen 

 before, all which to describe particularly were to roll Sisyphus's 

 stone or number the sands." Jarret was also a correspondent 

 of the botanist Clusius, who speaks of him with praise and 

 acknowledgements of the plants received from him. 



The authority Sir Hugh most frequently quotes is " T. T.," 

 and this was evidently 'Thomas Tusser, who was his contem- 

 porary, of whom you published my memoir some months since. 

 " Master HiU " was also one of his authorities, and probably 

 the Thomas Hill whose portrait and biography were the first 

 of this series. " Andrew Hill " is a different authority quoted 

 by Sir Hugh. He quotes (Garden of Eden, i., 36) "Gardiner's 

 Kitchen Garden, printed 1599," a book unknown to me. 



Although Sir Hugh derived from others most of the garden 

 knowledge he published, yet much of it was from his own ex- 

 perience, and lie had more than one garden. He tells of the 

 results of pruning frost-bitten Roses " upon divers standards 

 at Bednal-green," and that by cutting down Beans he had 

 from the same plants a second crop — " This I l^ave proved in 

 my garden in St. Martin's Lane." In the same volume there 

 is the " old, old story," of dishonest seedsmen and poultry 

 dealers, for Sir Hugh indignantly writes, " I would there were 

 some fit punishment devised for these petit coseners, by whose 

 means many poor men in England do oftentimes lose not 

 only the charge of their seed, but the whole use and benefit 

 of their ground after they have bestowed the best part of their 

 wealth upon it. Cheapside is as full of these lying and for- 

 swearing huswives as the shambles and Gracechurch Street 

 are of that shameless crew of poulters wives, who both daily 

 and most damnably, yea, upon the Sabbath-day itself, run 

 headlong into wilful perjury almost in every bargain which 

 they make, selling cocks for capons when they have pared their 

 combs and broken off their spurs ; old hens for pullets when 

 they have broken their pinions and brestbones." 



If space could be allowed much more I should like to quote, 

 but let me conclude with a list of his very varied works, and 

 for the most part published after his dto;a5e. 



" The Jewel House of Art and Nature ; Experiments in Hus- 

 bandry, Distillation, Chemistry, &c. 1594. Edited by D. 

 Bryant in 1653." 



" H. P. Manuale, &c. 1594." A Selection of Moral Sentences 

 from the Fathers and Patriarchs. 



" A Discoverie of certain English Plants. 1595." 

 " Delights for Ladies to Adorn their Persons, Tables, Closets, 

 with Bouquets, Perfumes, and Waters. 1602." In the Preface 

 he hopes that it will not receive the same unkind acceptation 

 as his first fruits, " The Jewel House of Art and Nature," and 

 his hope was realised, for I know four subsequent editions. 



" A New, Cheape, and Delicate fire of Cole-balls. 1603." Is 

 merely recommending coal dust to be made into a paste with 

 loam and formed into balls for fuel. 



"Florae's Paradise Beautified with Sundry Sorts of Delicate 

 Fruits and Flowers. 1608." This contains much good gar- 

 dening information, combined with much mysticism and re- 

 liance on planetary influence. 



" The New Founde Arte of Setting Corn. 1650." This was 

 a decoy publication. It advocates spade husbandry, and " the 

 new founde arte" probably was dibbling, but it is not revealed, 

 and the reader is informed that of the secret more might be 

 heard by inquiring at the printer's. 

 " The Garden of Eden or an Accurate Description of all 



