62 



nuts, filberts, chesnuts, &c. that any man hath, and can give 

 the best account of their natures and excellencies." And 

 again he says, " the whole nation is obliged to the industry 

 of the ingenious Mr. George Rickets, gardner at Hoxton or 

 Hogsdon without Bishopsgate, near London, at the sign of 

 the Hand there ; who can furnish any planter with all or most 

 of the fruit trees before mentioned, having been for many 

 years a most laborious and industrious collector of the best 

 species of all sorts of fruit from foreign parts. And hath 

 also the richest and most complete collection of all the great 

 variety of flower-bearing trees and shrubs in the kingdom. 

 That there is not a day in the year, but the trees, as well as 

 the most humble plants, do there yield ornaments for Flora; 

 with all sorts of curious and pleasant winier-greens, that 

 seemed to perpetuate the spring and summer, from the most 

 humble myrtle, to the very true cedar of Libanus. Not 

 without infinite variety of tulips, auriculaes, anemones, gilly- 

 flowers, and all other sorts of pleasant, and delicate flowers, 

 that he may be truly said to be the master-flowrist of Eng- 

 land; and is ready to furnish any ingenious person with any 

 of his choicest plants." 



John Cowel appears to have been a noted gardener at 

 Hoxton, about 1729. He was the author of the " Curious 

 and Profitable Gardener." 



Hugh Stafford, Esq. of Pynes, in Devonshire, who 

 published, in 1729, "A Treatise on Cyder Making, with a 

 Catalogue of Cyder Apples of Character; to which is pre- 

 fixed, a Dissertation on Cyder, and Cyder-Fruit." Another 

 edition in 1753. 



Benjamin Whitmill, Sen. and Jun. Gardeners at Hox- 

 ton, published the sixth edition, in small 8vo. of their " Ka- 

 lendarium Universale: or, the Gardener's Universal Calen- 



