204 



JOURNAL OP HORTIOULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I March 5, 1874. 



" This plant we grow in America by the thousand. I have 

 a house 100 feet long and 20 feet wide devoted entirely to 

 it : and although it grows yards in a few weeks, I have a 

 difficulty to keep up a stock equal to the demand. It is used 

 principally lor making wreaths, house decoration, mixing with 

 cut flowers, ornamenting the hair, trimming ladies' dresses 

 for balls and parties, and is never sold for less than a doUar 

 per yard. It is of very easy culture in a cool greenhouse or 

 conservatory ; it will grow yards in a few weeks from the time 

 of sowing. It is ijlantedinboxes or pots. Small twine is placed 

 for it to cling to. It is very much admired here, and I hope 

 before tliis is in print that I shall have thousands of it for 

 decorating purposes." It is many years since this plant was 

 introduced into England, but like many more old favourites 

 it is cast away to make room for the newer and less useful. — 

 H. CoMLEY, llendre Gardinx, Monmouth. 



[We quite agree with our correspondent. It is many years 

 since we saw its white flowers adorning a conservatory in 

 winter. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and was 

 cultivated in this country as long ago as 1702. — Eds.] 



THE MAEMOEA EAIDISSEUE. 

 Fkuit-teee walls are now so frequently wired for convenience 

 of training, as well as to prevent the brickwork being pitted with 

 nail holes, that a cheap and eflicient raidisseur or wu'e-strainer 

 is sure to meet with extensive adoption. There are many 

 such contrivances in use at the present time, but one of the 

 simplest and most effective is that invented by the Abbe Mar- 

 mora some years ago, and figured and described in the " Revue 



«J^ 



The Marmom Uaidissear. 



Hortioole " and other French gardening periodicals. As will 

 be perceived on reference to the engraving, it is on the same 

 principle as the capstan. One end of the wire is passed through 

 a hole in the middle of the capstan, which is in fact a small 

 iron cylinder, and made fast to a hook in the wall. The wire 

 is then unrolled and its other end fastened in the same way ; 

 the capstan is then moved to the centre of the length, and two 

 pieces of iron wire, as thick as a quill and s inches long, used 

 as levers, serve to turn the capstan and roll on it the wire from 

 each side. When the wire is tightened-up one of the levers is 

 left in its hole, the far end resting against the wall, or the 

 U-handle against the strained wire, as a stop to prevent unwind- 

 ing. For espaliers an S-shaped capstan is used, and the wire 

 having been first passed through posts at the requisite dis- 

 tance apart, is carried through the hole in the capstan, and 

 tightened-up by turning the two ends. When this is satis- 

 factorily completed the ends of the capstan are placed vertically 

 against the post to prevent the wire unrolling. A still more 

 simple form of this wire-strainer consists in doing away with 

 the bent handle, represented in the figure, and retaining the 

 capstan alone, which in this case is made to turn in the grip 

 of two hooks driven into the wall a short distance apart, or of 

 one double-clawed hook. 



GARDENERS AT THE ROYAL PALACES. 

 In answer to a correspondent, " C. Tokuens," we have very 

 little doubt that in fact there were gardeners, because there 



were gardens, attached to the royal residences soon after the 

 establishment of the Norman dynasty. 



In the "Liber Niger Domus" of Edward IV. (1461-1483) 

 are detailed the duties of the various ofiicers of the royal 

 household, and among them that the " Serjeant of the Con- 

 fectionary " had the care of " dates, figges, raisonnes, wardens, 

 pearys, apples, quinces, cherryes, and all other fruytes after 

 the seasonne." He was to take care that there was a sufficient 

 supply "had of the King's gardynes, as cherryes, peares, 

 apples, nuttes greate and smalle, for somer season, and for 

 leuten wardens, quinces, and other." So there were royal 

 gardeners then. In the " Privy Purse Expenses" of Eliza- 

 beth of York, afterwards Henry VII. 's queen, in the year 1502, 

 mention is made of " the keper of the litle gardyn at Winde- 

 sour." Baynard's Castle, London, was also then a royal resi- 

 dence, and one entry is " to Waltier Reynold, keper of the 

 garden at Baynardes Castle, for his wages for a hole yere 

 ended at Mighelmas last passed, sixty shillings and ten pence." 

 We may reasonably conclude that " gardening and gardeners " 

 benefited the community two centuries earlier, for from a MS. 

 of cookery, written early in the fourteenth century, possessed 

 by the Boyal Society, we learn that there were served to table 

 various preparations of (we retain the spelling) lekes, onyons, 

 cabaches, rapes, gourdys, green pesen, parseU, sage, saveray, 

 ysope, cheboUes, mynt, peletur, costmaryn, fenell. At that 

 time our grocers' currants were called " raisynges of corance." 



Descending lower in the order of time we find mention of a 

 gardener named Woolf, and Gough the antiquary says that 

 he was a French priest. Henry VIII. (150H-1547) sent him to 

 travel on the continent for the purpose of acquiring a better 

 Imowledge of gardening, and it is recorded that he brought 

 back various varieties of fniits and vegetables. He was pro- 

 bably gardener at Windsor, for wo find in the " Privy Purse 

 Expenses of Princess Mary," in 1.530, that " Jaspar was 

 keeper of the garden at Newhall," or Beaulien, as it was 

 also caUed, another royal residence in Essex, and a "Frenche 

 gardener at Westmynster," probably St. James's, and this 

 might be Woolf before mentioned. She also mentions " the 

 Iceeper of the King's garden at Grenewiche ;" he brought her 

 " herbes and flowres," and on which occasion she gave him 2.5. 

 Mention is also made of " the Qwene's gardener at Hampton 

 Court," and another entry shows that his name was Chapman, 

 and that he carried Pears to Princess Mary ; but six years later 

 the gardener's name was Edmund, and he received os. for the 

 Strawberries he brought. 



Queen Elizabeth (1.5.58-1603), among " artificers," in her pay 

 had a " maker of hearb-bowres and planters of trees," his fee 

 being £25. Her " gardiner " at St. James's fee was £9 2s. Oif . ; 

 at Hampton Court, £8 Is. 8((. ; at Chelsea, £C Is. Sd. ; at 

 Eltham, £11 lis. id.; at Greenwich, £7 4s. id.; at Rich- 

 mond, £4 lis. 3(i. ; at Windsor " the keeper of the garden 

 under the Castle," £4 ; and at Woodstock, £3 Os. Wd. Besides 

 these she had in pay many keepers of parks and other appur 

 tenances of her very many residences, among which it now 

 reads comical that there was in " Maribone, keeper of the 

 howse, Covent Garden and the woodes," his fee was £10. 



We have before us an original order for the payment of 

 Queen Elizabeth's gardener at Hampton Court. It was at the 

 close of her reign, and the wages were higher than just named. 



" My very good Lord, — This bearer, John Dinye, her Majesty's 

 gardiner at Hampton Court, to whom her Majesty hath granted 

 a Privy Seal of two shilUngs by the day for himself and ten- 

 pence for his man, hath continued iu daily employment there 

 from the feast ot the Birth of our Lord God last past, until the 

 feast day of the Annunciation of our blessed Virgin Mary then 

 next following, which I am from time to time to signify to your 

 Lordship. Ani therefore I pray your Lordship that upon this 

 my certificate he may receive his pay due unto him accordingly. 

 At the Court at Whitehall this 27th of March, 1601. 



" Your Lordship's very assured kinsman and friend to com- 

 mand, "Nottingham." 



In King James I.'s reign (1C03-1G25) it puzzles us to discern 

 why Alphonsus Fowle, keeper of St. James's garden, had £160 

 yearly, whilst Edward Lonnel, keeper of the garden and or- 

 chard at Richmond, had only 49s. id. 



OGSTON HALL, 



THE HESEDENCE OF MRS. TURBUTT. 



Fon natural scenery there are few English counties which 



can vie with Derbyshire. It does not present the soft rural 



landscapes of many of the more southern parts of the country, 



the thatched cottages nestling iu the valley, or clustered round 



