AogTJrt 6, 1875. ] 



JOUBNAL OP EORTICtTLTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



115 



conctjbine. She was enabled to be lavjeh by the income 

 poured upon her by the lung. " They have beBtowed ten 

 tboneand pounds a-year more upon the Duchess of Cleveland," 

 wrote Andrew Marvel, " and she has litewise near ten thousand 

 pounds a-year more out of the new form of the county excise 

 of beer and ale, and five thousand pounds a-year out of the 

 Post Office. All promotions, spiritual and temporal, pass 

 under her cognisance." 



Immediately after the Kestoration, in November, ICGO, the 

 office of Keeper and Gardener of the Garden in St. James's 

 Park, with a salary of £40 a-year, was granted to Eose ; and on 

 February 2l8t, 1GC6, a warrant was issued to pay him, ap- 

 pointed keeper of St. James's garden in place of Andrew and 

 Gabriel Mollett deceased, £240 a-year for wages for keeping 

 the said garden. Finding that Eose's stipend was so liberal, 

 knowing also that both the Duchess of Cleveland and Charles 11. 

 rewarded liberally the servants they best liked, and further 

 knowing that Evelyn and other men of good position patron- 

 ised Bose, I thought it probable he died possessed of property 

 requiring to be distributed by will. I was not wrong in my 

 conclusion, and I have inspected a copy of the last will and 

 testament of " John Eose of St. Martins-in-the-Fields." It 

 was executed on the 22nd of February, 1G76, and proved on 

 the 24th of September, 1C77. 



The nearest relatives mentioned are a nephew named 

 William Walker, and a niece, Elizabeth Chamberlayne. To 

 them, their children, and many friends he bequeathed small 

 legacies, amounting to nearly £400, but the bulk of his pro- 

 perty he devised to the parish of Amesbury (Almesbury in the 

 Will) in Wiltshire, of which I conclude he was a native. In it 

 and its vicinity he had two copyholds and two farms, and in 

 that county resided some of his legatees. Only one of these 

 was of his own name, " Captain John Eose, of St. Clement 

 Danes," and he is only mentioned as his " friend." 



He made his sister-in-law, Eva Stanton, executrix and 

 trustee, devising to her the residue of his property and his 

 freehold lands at Ditchet (Detcheat) in Somersetshire for the 

 purpose of presenting a gilt communion plate to the church of 

 Amesbury ; £10 to be at once distributed among the poor of 

 that parish ; and to secure £30 a-year to an orthodox school- 

 master for instructing twenty scholars there, natives of the 

 town. His funeral expenses were not to exceed £100. 



The wOl was proved in seven days after his burial, for on 

 reference to the register of the church of St. Martins-in-the- 

 Fields I found this entry, " 1G77. John Eose. Sept. 17th. 

 Sepnlt. in ecclesia." 



His interment in the church shows that ho was a parish 

 magnate, a conclusion deducible from Evelyn's notice of him ; 

 and we have the further testimony of a contemporary gardener, 

 for Switzer in his " Icnographia " says " Mr. Eose was first 

 gardener to the Lord Essex at Essex House in the Strand, and 

 afterwards to his Eoyal Majesty King Charles II. at the royal 

 gardens in St. James's Park. He was esteemed to be the best 

 of his profession in those days, and ought to be remembered 

 for the encouragement he gave to a servant of his, who has 

 since made the greatest figure that ever yet any gardener did, 

 I mean Mr. London. He (Mr. Rose) may be well ranked 

 amongst the great virtuosos of that time (now dead) who were 

 all well pleased to accept of his company while living." 



Having discovered Eose's connection with the county of 

 Wilts, and that Sir B. C. Hoai-e in his history of that county 

 has merely mentioned his name, I induced " Wiltshire Eec- 

 TOR " to visit Amesbury, and he thus tells of its results— 



" Amesbury in South Wilts is &n awkward place to get to 

 from North Wilts. Just as there are many cures for the tooth- 

 ache because none are certain, so there are many ways recom- 

 mended to those who wish to go to Amesbury because none 

 are very direct. ' How can I best get to Amesbury ?' had been 

 for some days my question to everybody I met. ' Take train 

 to Devizes, then drive on eighteen miles across the Plain,' 

 said one. ' Go to Whyle and then drive ten miles,' said 

 another. ' Go to Salisbury and then drive nine miles,' replied 

 a third. ' Or go ;' but I grew tired of the various sug- 

 gestions and chose my own route, which was to take train to 

 Wilton and then drive eight miles across the Plain. 



" Anyway Amesbury is an awkward place to reach. Bather 

 an advantage this, given fine weather, which I had, because 

 an out-of-the-way place retains some distinctive characteristics 

 which are being fast obUterated by the Toniversal nearness of 

 railway stations. Peculiarities of dialect must soon go when 

 everyone travels, and everybody will be educated, and henoe 

 a universal sameness will succeed. 



" Beaching WUton by rail I proceed behind a tired horse — 

 (June is a great month for excursions, and horses are woefully 

 hardworked) — and ascend those downs called Salisbury Plain, 

 so called, I suppose, because not a plain. How grand that old 

 unaltered open country is, and at this time of the year it is not 

 dreary as in winter. About me, around me, above me, beneath 

 me, is a sea of green ; here and there corn waving in the sun- 

 light, but more frequently the grass as of yore, though the 

 bustards are gone, and even the Bustard Inn is no more. But 

 the corn patches are not enclosed, so all is open and free to 

 the eye as in the days of the Druids. After ascending the 

 downs for a time we bend downwards to the valley of the 

 South Wilts Avon (there is a North Wilts Avon aa well) ; and, 

 as always by a river's brink, there is a richer soil, more trees, 

 and man's dwellings. Long straggUng villages all named 

 Woodford — Lower, Great, and Upper Woodford — are in turn 

 passed. I notice that even in these out-of-the-way nooks in 

 the bettermost cottage gardens among the old Cabbage, old 

 White, and the old Maiden's Blush, how modem-named Eoses 

 have begun to make their appearance ; and in the windows, 

 instead of the old gawky sparsely-flowering Geraniums, are 

 now the modern large-trussed bedders, making the low case- 

 ments bright with bloom. 



" The country improves as I go on until I come upon trim 

 cottages, pleasant farmhouses, and, oh 1 one charming Eliza- 

 bethan residence. No longer the short herbage of the down, 

 but rich grasslands. I soon enter Little Amesbury, a neat 

 hamlet with one fine old house, and crossing a bridge over the 

 Avon — rather a wide stream at this point — I am in Amesbury, 

 one of the many small towns of Wiltshire. I have as yet no 

 knowledge of the place, save as connected with the great annual 

 coursing parties lasting a week, the last day of which the 

 meeting is at Stoneheuge close by ; and I also have heard that 

 there is a glove manufactory in the town, while in common 

 with all educated Englishmen I know the fact that not only 

 British but Eoman remains are near. Across the bridge to the 

 left stands the church, formerly conventual — a grand massive 

 structure, Norman probably in part, but with early English 

 windows, with tower in the centre. 



" But I have one chief object before me — namely, to make 

 inquiries about John Eose and his connection with Amesbury. 



" I see that the little town lies pleasantly, that it has two 

 streets wide and clean, and has a fair sprinkling of good houses 

 in it. I halt at the principal inn, which with its archway and 

 stable court has an old-posting-house look about it. I inquire 

 at once of the landlord about the school, and am directed to 

 a grammar school, being, I suppose, taken for a paterfamilias 

 in search of a school for a young hopeful. But the school- 

 master's house has too modern a look. I ask, ' Is there no 

 other school ? Is there not an ancient building V ' No, none.' 

 ' Not one endowed by John Eose ?' ' Yes, Eose's Charity : 

 there it is on the other side of the street. A woman is enter- 

 ing the gates.' I follow, and instinct leads me on down the 

 yard, and an open door reveals school desks and school appU- 

 ances. The time is only half-past eight of the morning, so 

 school has not yet begun, but at his desk sits the master, Mr. 

 E. W. Flower, to whom I tell my errand. I find Mr. Flower 

 ready to hear and ready to tell anything he knows about John 

 Eose. I am very pleased to find the master of such a school 

 properly enthusiastic about its founder. Very different have 

 I sometimes found it, when the resident of an ancient house 

 cared nothing whatever for its history. I produce a copy of 

 last week's Journal of Horticulture, with in it No. 5 of "The 

 Early Writers on English Gardening," and explain to Mr. 

 Flower that what we have done for John Parkinson we wish 

 to do for John Eose. Mr. Flower is also a horticulturist, and 

 shows me several prize cards, evidences of his success. Here, 

 then, I have the very man I want — a lover of a garden, and a 

 devoted admirer of the founder of his school. Mr. Flower 

 produces from his desk the deed of gift of the school and the 

 orders and ordinances relating to it. In this document we see 

 that John Eose was most anxious that the master of his school 

 should be a good man ; that the scholars should be well cared 

 for in body, mind, and soul. No one reading the document 

 could come to any other conclusion than that Bose was both a 

 reUgious and a kindly man. John Rose's school was no doubt 

 first kept in the south aisle of the church — i.e., inside the 

 building, just as the famous Bev. Bobert Walker of Seathwaite, 

 mentioned by Wordsworth, kept his, and even used the com- 

 munion table for his desk. "Then it appears, so Mr. Flower 

 informed me, that the school was kept in a cottage ; then 

 where the National School now is ; and afterwards, as now, 



