OF GARDENING IN 1685 



others for fruits ; some standards, some against The 

 wails or palisades, some for forest-trees and 

 groves for shade, some parts wild, some exact ; gardens 

 and fountains much in request among them. 

 But after so much ramble into ancient times, 

 and remote places, to return home and consider 

 the present way and humour of our gardening 

 in England; which seem to have grown into 

 such vogue, and to have been so mightily im- 

 proved in three or four and twenty years of His 

 Majesty's reign, that perhaps few countries are 

 before us, either in the elegance of our gardens, 

 or in the number of our plants; and I believe 

 none equals us in the variety of fruits, which 

 may be justly called good; and from the ear- 

 liest cherry and strawberry, to the last apples 

 and pears, may furnish every day of the circling 

 year. For the taste and perfection of what we 

 esteem the best, I may truly say,that the French, 

 who have eaten my peaches and grapes at 

 Shene, in no very ill year, have generally con- 

 cluded, that the last are as good as any they 

 have eaten in France, on this side Fountain- 

 bleau; and the first as good as any they have 

 eat inGascony; I mean those which come from 

 the stone, and are properly called peaches, not 

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