JoJy 15, 1876. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



53 



comes within his grasp, and in this we are not disappointed. 

 We will shortly return to the subject and give it a more length- 

 ened notice. In the meantime it is suflicieut to say that those 

 who have not seen the book will do well to procure it withou t 

 delay. 



We are requested to invite the attention of persons 



interested in Pelargoniums to the fact that the Exhibition of 

 the PELiBQONioM SOCIETY wiU take place in the gardens of the 

 Koyal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, on Wednesday 

 next, July 2l8t. It may, perhaps, prevent some confusion as 

 to the entries if it is pointed out that the Show, being held 

 subject to the regulations of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 notice of entries should be sent in to Mr. Barron at South 

 Kensington in the usual way. The annual meeting of the 

 Pelargonium Society will take place at Chiswick, by permission 

 of the Council, on the afternoon of the 2'2ad inst., the day 

 following the Show ; and as it has been suggested that the 

 members should dine together after the Meeting, it would be 

 well that those who may be able or desirous to do so should 

 notify this to the Hon. Secretary not later than Tuesday, in 

 order that arrangements may be made for their comfort and 

 convenience. 



On Tuesday the 6th inst. the Employes at the Waltham 



Cross Nuksebies were entertained at supper by Mr. Arthur 

 W. Paul, son of the proprietor of the nurseries. The supper 

 was served in one of the greenhouses, having been preceded 

 by a holiday. Subsequently the main walks of the nurseries 

 were illuminated with oil lamps and Chinese lanterns, about 

 a mile of chains being used to support them. The band of 

 the West Essex Yeomanry was stationed in the nurseries, and 

 played during the evening. At p.m. the nurseries were thrown 

 open to the public, and between five and six thousand visitors 

 availed themselves of a most agreeable promenade. A handsome 

 inkstand was presented to Mr. Paul, jun., by the employes. 



THE OLD MARKET GARDENS and NURSERIES 

 OP LONDON.— No. 2. 

 I DO not know whether any reader will dispute my right to 

 speak of the old gardens of the City of London under the 

 heading of " market gardens," yet it may be as well to give 

 proof that they may be lawfully so designated in some sense. 

 London citizens have always been famous for their skill in 

 trading ; and at an early period citizens and gentlemen too 

 — nay, the very clergy also — did not hesitate to make their 

 gardens in the City or its outskirts a source of profit. They 

 might have given away the surplus above their own require- 

 ments to the poor, especially the Church dignitaries, but they 

 did not in the general way do so ; let us hope they did so 

 sometimes. As, however, in onr own day amateurs see nothing 

 nnbeooming in the act of sending their fruit and vegetables 

 into the market, we need not pass a vote of censure on London 

 citizens in the days of the Henries or the Tudors, at least not 

 on this ground. But it would seem from some of the old 

 chroniclers that these citizens, or their servants, were not un- 

 frequently to blame for the way in which they disposed of the 

 refuse of their gardens, which, instead of being properly decom- 

 posed and then utilised, was allowed to remain to vitiate the 

 air and offend the noses of residents in the neighbourhood. 

 We gain a Uttle inkling into the way in which City produce was 

 sold a few hundreds of years ago by an old petition dated 1345, 

 which stiU survives amongst London's records, and which was 

 addressed by the gardeners of several earls, barons, bishops, 

 and of sundry citizens of London also, to the Mayor. The 

 burden of it is a complaint that they were not then allowed to 

 stand in peace, as had been their privilege heretofore, in front 

 of the church of St. Austin, there to vend the garden produce 

 of their said masters, but were ordered off by some officials or 

 other persons, representing the functions of our modern pohce, 

 I suppose. There are always two sides to a story, and a de- 

 claration was made on the other hand by the clergy that these 

 gardeners were a nuisance to the priests singing matins and 

 mass, and to many, both clerks and laymen, who were pas- 

 sengers, by reason of the scurrility and clamour in which these 

 and their assistants indulged themselves while selling pulse. 

 Cherries, vegetables, cfec. Pulse, we may presume, stood for 

 Peas and Beans : we have here incidentally another proof that 

 London City and its suburbs were once famous for Cherries. 

 However, the Mayor found himself obliged to give orders that 

 they should no longer vend garden stuff in that spot, and the 

 gardeners had assigned to them a new place between the south 



gate of the churchyard and the garden wall of the Black Friars 



of Barnard's Castle. 



Of course, as London gardens became quite insufficient to 

 supply the City with vegetables and fruit, country folks miugled 

 with these City gardeners, and in fact, as it might be supposed, 

 at last drove them out of the field. Various chroniclers have 

 references to the early coster, or costard-mongers, who made 

 the streets echo with cries that would now indeed seem extra- 

 ordinary. " Ripe young Beans !" would not attract us, for we 

 do not prefer Beans for the table that are " ripe," if we under- 

 stand by the word Beans with the pods fully matured. " Ripe 

 Cowcumbers !" with an emphasis on the cow, is not so unlike 

 the nineteenth century, but we have not persons who make it 

 their sole business to sell Artichokes, that vegetable being 

 formerly in high favour. " White St. Thomas's Onions !" and 

 " White Radishes !" are cries which indicate that an absence 

 of colour was appreciated by our ancestors. A large trade waa 

 done in herbs which were used, not merely in soups and pies but 

 were also employed in decoctions and infusions for medicinal 

 purposes, seeing that foreign and more potent drugs were scarce. 

 A proclamation of the reign of Charles I. denounced pretty 

 strongly oyster-wives, herb-wives, tripe-wives, and others of 

 the street- vending class, on account of the noise they made; 

 thus proving that these folks in Stuart-London understood 

 and acted on the principle that if you want business you must 

 call it, and not wait for it to come to you. 



London was then progressing marvellously, and the garden 

 ground in the City limits had greatly diminished, but in the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there was much of the land 

 under cultivation for culinary purposes, while orchards and 

 pleasure gardens well shaded with trees gave a semi-rural 

 aspect to the vicinity of some of the bustling thoroughfares. 

 To nearly all of the respective Halls of the Companies was 

 attached a plot of open ground, and then there were besides 

 the domains of nobles resident in the City and those of the 

 weU-to-do citizens ; yet it would seem that the largest part of 

 the garden land or vacant space belonged to the different 

 monasteries and convents, then excessively numerous. And in 

 many cases, besides the ground held by the Church in connec- 

 tion with some building, there was a separate residence belong- 

 ing to the abbot or prior at a distance from it. What the 

 monks grew I suspect they rarely gave away, as the conventual 

 life does not usually affect men's appetites unfavourably ; at 

 least, if we are to believe history, it certainly did not in thoso 



A mention of a few of these will show how much land was 

 formerly at the disposal of ecclesiastics, and makes us more 

 indignant to think that these establishments, as Rymer tells 

 ns, were exempt from all rates and taxes — they had not even 

 to pay highway tolls. — J. R. S. C. 



NOTES ON VILLA and SUBURBAN GARDENING. 



The Stbawberky for forcing and general culture ought of 

 necessity to claim considerable attention at this season, for as 

 the fruiting season is now about over it will be the most con- 

 venient time for raising young plants for future crops. The 

 fashion of allowing a Strawberry bed to exhaust itself in one 

 spot for a number of years is fast dying out, for by such a plan 

 of culture where the plants young and old are allowed to become 

 mixed together as if it were a grass plot, it cannot be so satis- 

 factory in its returns as by the new plan of growing every sort 

 separate, and every row, and every plant in the row, has its 

 space to itself. By this plan high cultivation can be more easily 

 practised, and the returns are therefore greater and the fruit 

 finer and of better flavour than in the case where old stools and 

 young runners are mixed together in the same beds. 



When I first went in a garden to work it appeared to be a 

 question of pride as to who could keep a Strawberry iDed in 

 bearing the longest ; the palm generally falling to those whose 

 soil was of a rich and rather tenacious character, for this is the 

 kind of soil the generality of sorts will best thrive ia ; but in 

 these days three or four years is considered a fair time for the 

 duration of a Strawberry bed. During this time the plants 

 should be well attended to, and no useless runners should be 

 allowed to remain attached to the plants to draw the vigour 

 from the fruiting plant. 



The ground should be well prepared by deep trenching and 

 rich manuring before planting, and after that the soil around 

 the plants should be kept as clean as that of a flower bed, and 

 by surface-dressing with manure while the plants are in a bear- 

 ing condition, together with ample waterings in dry weather, 

 will make up the principal conditions under which heavy 

 crops of fine fruit are produced. By this plan the sorts can be 

 kept true. Every plant that proves unhealthy or unfruitful 



