13 



these foure Bookes of Husbandry, collected and set forth, 

 by Master Conrade Heresbatch, a great and a learned Coun- 

 celler of the Duke of Cleues: not thinking it reason, though 

 I haue altered and increased his vvorke, with mine owne 

 readings and observations, ioined with the experience of 

 sundry my friends, to take from him (as diuers in the like 

 case haue done) the honour and glory of his owne trauaile : 

 Neither is it my minde, that this either his doings, or mine, 

 should deface, or any wayes darken the good enterprise, or 

 painfull trauailes of such our Countrymen of England, as 

 haue plentifully written of this matter: but alwayes haue, 

 and do giue them the reuerence and honour due to so ver- 

 tuous, and well disposed Gentlemen, namely, Master Fitz- 

 herbert, and Master Tusser: whose vvorkes may, in my 

 fancie, without any presumption, compare with any, either 

 Varro, Columella, or Palladius of Rome." 



Sir Hugh Platt, "that learned and great observer," 

 but of whom we know so little, was, as Mr. Weston, in his 

 Catalogue of English Authors, informs us, " the most inge^- 

 nious husbandman of the age he lived in: yet, so great was 

 his modesty, that all his works seem to be posthumous, ex- 

 cept the Paradise of Flora, which appeared in 1600, when 

 it is probable he was living. He spent part of his time at 

 Copt-hall, in Essex, or at Bishop's-hall, in Middlesex, at 

 each of which places he had a country seat; but his town 

 residence was Lincoln's Inn. He held a correspondence 

 with all lovers of agriculture and gardening throughout Eng- 

 land; and such was the justice and modesty of his temper, 

 that he always named the author of every discovery commu- 

 nicated to him.'' In 1606 he had a garden in St. Martin s 

 Lane. A list of his works appears in the late Dr. Watts's 

 most laborious work, the Bibl. Brit, in 4 vols. 4to. In his 

 ' c Floraes Paradise, beautified and adorned with sundry sorts 

 of delicate fruites and flowers, to be sold in Paule's church- 



