248 GARDENS. 



own memory, both in town and country, how vastly 

 the consumption of vegetables is increased. Green 

 stalls in cities now support multitudes in a comfort- 

 able state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every 

 decent labourer, also, has his garden, which is half 

 his support, as well as his delight ; and common 

 farmers provide plenty of beans, peas, and greens, 

 for their hinds to eat with their bacon ; and those 

 few that do not are despised for their sordid parsi- 

 mony, and looked upon as regardless of the welfare 

 of their dependents. Potatoes have prevailed in 

 this little district, by means of premiums, within 

 these twenty years only, and are much esteemed 

 here now by the poor, who would scarce have ven- 

 tured to taste them in the last reign. 



Our Saxon ancestors certainly had some sort of 

 cabbage, because they call the month of February 

 sprout- cale ; but long after their days the cultiva- 

 tion of gardens was little attended to. The religious, 

 being men of leisure, and keeping up a constant 

 correspondence with Italy, were the first people 

 among us who had gardens and fruit-trees in any 

 perfection, within the walls of their abbeys * and 

 priories. The barons neglected every pursuit that 

 did not lead to war, or tend to the pleasure of the 

 chase. 



It was not till gentlemen took up the study of 

 horticulture themselves that the knowledge of gar- 

 dening made such hasty advances. Lord Cobham, 

 Lord Ila, and Mr. Waller of Beaconsfield, were 

 some of the first people of rank that promoted the 

 elegant science of ornamenting, without despising 



* " In monasteries, the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, 

 however dimly. In them, men of business were formed for the 

 state. The art of writing was cultivated by the monks; they 

 were the only proficients in mechanics, gardening, and architec- 

 ture." See DALRYMPLE'S Annals of Scotland. 



