A HISTORY 



OF 



GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



CHAPTER I. 



MONASTIC GARDENING. 



" Forsitan, et pingues hortos quae cura colendi 

 Ornaret, canerem, . . . . " 



Virgil, Geor., iv. Ii8. 



'T^HE history of the Gardens of England follows step by 

 step the history of the people. In times of peace and 

 plenty they increased and flourished, and during years of war 

 and disturbance they suffered. The various races that have 

 predominated, and rulers that have governed this country 

 influenced the gardens in a marked degree. Therefore, as we 

 trace their history, we must not lose sight of the people whose 

 national characteristics or whose foreign alliances left a stamp 

 upon the gardens they made. 



Nothing worthy of the name of a garden existed in Britain 

 before the Roman Conquest. The Britons, we know, revered 

 the oak, and held the mistletoe sacred, and stained their bodies 

 with woad,* but of any efforts they may have made for the cultiva- 

 tion of these or any other plants we know nothing. The history 

 of Horticulture in this country cannot fairly be said to begin 

 before the coming of the Romans. In this, as in other sciences, 

 the Romans were so far advanced that it was centuries before 

 they were surpassed, or even equalled by any other nation. 



* Mr. Baker points out that woad is not wild in Britain. 



I 



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