April 0, 1376. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTIOULTURB AND COTTAGE GARDENEE, 



271 



parted instruction in hortioulture to their contemporaries, and 

 that have preserved to ua a record of their practice of the art. 

 Of thoBO clerical horticulturiata the first of superior attain- 

 ments known to ns is the Rev. Joun Ladbence, and anyone 

 even now taking his " Clergyman's Recreation " and " Gentle- 

 man's Recreation " for his guides would not be led into faulty 

 practice. Those works tell the results of his experience during 

 more than twenty years, and he observes, " Most of the time 

 I can spare from the necessary care and business of a large 

 parish, and from my other studios, is spent in my garden and 

 making observations towards the farther improvement thereof, 

 for I thank God this sort nf diversion has tended very much 

 to the ease and (juiet 

 of my own mind ; and 

 the retirement I find 

 therein, by walking 

 and meditation, has 

 help'd to set forward 

 many useful thoughts 

 upon more divine sub- 

 jects, as I may per- 

 haps hereafter have 

 occasion to inform the 

 world. In the mean- 

 time I cannot but in- 

 oourage and invite my 

 reverend brethren to 

 the love of a garden, 

 having my self all 

 along reap'd so much 

 fruit from it both in a 

 ligurative and literal 

 sense." He was born 

 at St. Martin's, Stam- 

 ford Baron, North- 

 amptonshire, of which 

 his father was the 

 incumbent, in 1008. 

 He was admitted B.A. 

 of Clare Hall, Cam. 

 bridge, in 1688, and 

 was presented to the 

 rectory of Yelvertoft 

 in Northamptonshire 

 in 1703, previous to 

 which he had become 

 M.A. To the cultiva- 

 tion of the garden of 

 the rectory house he 

 assiduously applied, 

 and though its soil 

 was shallow and on 

 the worst description 

 of subsoil — viz., a 

 white clay, in three 

 years he grew in it 

 some of the choicest 

 fruit. In 1721 he 

 moved to the rectory 

 of Bishop's Wear- 

 mouth in the county 

 of Durham. In 17'23 

 he was a prebendary 



of Salisbury. He saya that he pursued gardening " by way of 

 diversion, not at all interfering with, much less interrupting 

 his proper studies," and an evidence of that is before me. 

 His " Christian Morals " and " Christian Prudence," published 

 in 1720, are volumes worthy of a clergyman, and to be read 

 with pleasure and advantage. 



His first publication relative to gardening was " The Clergy- 

 man's Recreation : showing the Pleasure and Profit of the Art 

 of Gardening," which passed through six editions between the 

 years 1714 and 1726. The completing portion of this work is 

 entitled " The Gentleman's Recreation, or the Second Part of 

 the Art of Gardening Improved." Of this three editions ap- 

 peared between 1716 and 172.S. 



His " Fruit Garden Kalendar : Teaching in Ordsr of Time 

 what is to be done therein every Month in the Year," was 

 publishsd in 1718, and I am not aware of any subsequent 

 edition. 



The three volumes had as their publisher Mr. Bernard 

 Lintot ; and when in 1726 Mr. Liurance published in a folio 



volume " A New System of Agriculture : being a Complete 

 liodyot Husbandry and (lardeninsr," Lintot asserted that in 

 different words it contained what Mr. Laurence had previously 

 sold to him in the form of " The Clergyman's and Gentleman's 

 Recreation." This assertion is not true, for the " System of 

 Agriculture " includes farming and every department of gar- 

 dening, whereas the "Recreations" are restricted exclusively 

 to fruit culture. The following are a few unconnected extracts 

 from its pages : — • iu i l . 



" I was the first and almost only writer in the last century 

 who had revived the spirit of gardening." 

 " By the bounty of the Bishop of Durham I have been re- 

 moved (very agrera- 

 bly) into his bishop- 

 riok, which may pro- 

 perly be called The 

 Garden af the Xorth." 

 " Superstition often 

 governs where it 

 thould not; but the 

 good wife ifillVecp to 

 Ijer old mumpBimums 

 of an Olid egg when 

 she sets her hen, but 

 let grafting be per- 

 formed ' without any 

 regard to weak and 

 groundless supersti- 

 tion of the age of the 

 moon.'" Some of the 

 names spelt different 

 ly from our forms of 

 spelling are Philbud, 

 Golden Renating, Sel- 

 lery. It is startling 

 to find that the chap- 

 ter entitled " Reptiles 

 or the Lowest Viva- 

 cious Flowers " re- 

 lates to the Auricula, 

 Polyanthus, Hepati- 

 oa, Violet, and such 

 dwarf plants. " The 

 Wiuter Bon Chrititn 

 is remarkable for 

 keeping longest, and 

 all the sorts of them 

 are as remaikable for 

 answering so well the 

 purport of their name, 

 Bon Chritien,or Good 

 Christian, sound at 

 Heart (the right sort, 

 alas ! hard to be met 

 with), for as in time 

 they begin to decay 

 and rot in the out- 

 ward parts or pulp, so 

 it is observ'd that the 

 core or heart conti- 

 nues generally sound 

 to the last." 



In 1728 appeared 

 Paradice Regaiu'd, or 



Fig. 80.— Rev. John tAnEEHCE. 



his last publication, a poeui entitled 



the Art of Gardening." It is a pamphlet of only fifty-nine 

 pages. There is no author's name on the title, and we have 

 doubted whether he was the author, for in it he describes his 

 cottage on the bank of the Thames near Claremont — 



" Hereon my glebe antl mauaion situate, 

 In cumpasa small, affurd no mean retreat. 

 Through wome ill fate they long neglected lay, 

 In which condition all thiuffs felt decay; 

 The gates unhins'd, the palizados down, 

 Were all defenceleHs, like dismantled town. 

 The glebe was rude throughout, and cover'd o'er 

 "With weeils, in sad confusion, nothing bore." 



He then relates how he restored the garden to order, what 

 flowers and trees he introduced, and also bees, concluding 

 with these four worthy lines — 



" Thoao that were innocent before too wise. 

 Were gard'nera made, and plao'd in Paradice : 

 Oh ! may I count what disobedience cost. 

 And innocence regain where onae 'twas lost." 



Mr. Laurence died at Bishops Wearmonth May 18tb, 1732, 



