VISIT TO LONDON a; 



In after years Goodyer cultivated many other new fruits 

 and vegetables, including the Virginian water-melon or 

 Pompion, 'no bigger nor larger than a great apple', but 

 none are now so well known as the Artichoke, his first 

 horticultural triumph, and one with which his name will 

 always be connected. Indeed, it may be that this early 

 success inspired those assiduous searchings for new and 

 rare plants that characterized the whole of his active 

 career. 



i6i8 



Several papers dated 1618 show Goodyer s connexion 

 with the Bilson household, probably, as we have said, in 

 the capacity of steward or agent. In the corner of a 

 roughly scribbled letter, printed on page 9, is a fragment 

 of a diary, with a reference to the fact that his ' hartichokes ' 

 required protection in cold weather. 



At the same time his interest in field botany was steadily 

 increasing. He made several journeys on horseback in his 

 own and neighbouring counties and up to London, perhaps 

 on his master's business, but certainly to his own profit and 

 advancement as a botanist. 



On one of these visits he would almost certainly have 

 again visited the well-known garden in Long Acre belonging 

 to John Parkinson who, like Coys, had received many rare 

 plants collected by William Boel in Spain in 1607, an 

 acquisition all the more desirable since many of his own 

 fine plants had perished during the * most violent frosty 

 winter' that preceded. In 1618 Parkinson was gloating 

 over his various horticultural triumphs, including the 

 Great Double Yellow Spanish Daffodil which he claimed 

 to have been the first to grow.^ 



On the 9th of April Goodyer noted 'Cowslipps 2-in-a-hose' 

 and ' Primrose 2-in-a-hose ' at Sheet, probably in the garden 

 of William Yalden, who almost certainly lived in a new 

 house by the mill on the upper waters of the Rother. The 



^ Parkinson, Paradise, p. 103. 



