OF HERB GARDENS n 



dates sometimes leave one cold, but those few words bridge 

 the centuries in a flash, and one sees the old gardener in the 

 glory of the July sunshine working happily amongst his 

 gillyflowers. It is Lawson also who gives the sage advice 

 to the housewife, that if her maids help her with the weeding 

 she must teach them the difference between herbs and weeds. 

 Thomas Hill (who adopted the nom de plume of " Didymus 

 Mountain " for one of his books !) is in some ways the 

 quaintest of these three writers ; but one cannot help feeling 

 that like most Tudor authorities on gardening he did not 

 mean to be taken quite literally, and it is pleasant to find 

 that in those days, as now, between book gardening and 

 practical gardening there was a great gulf fixed ! It is 

 doubtful whether any one could suggest a more appropriate 

 hedge for the herb garden than his idea of young elder trees 

 at intervals. There should, of course, be an elder tree in 

 every herb garden ; for have not herbs since time immemorial 

 been under the protection of the spirit of the elder tree? 

 A hedge of briars, as Hill truly observes, " within three years 

 would well defend out both thefe and beaste, nor would it 

 be in danger of the wanton wayfairing man's firebrand 

 passinge by, although he should put fire to it." Time 

 apparently was of no object, for he suggests that the briars 

 should be grown from seed. Like the majority of gardeners 

 and herbalists in those days, Hill believed firmly that the 

 sowing of seeds should be done whilst the moon was waxing, 

 and all cutting back when the moon was waning. He also 

 gives us this astonishing secret, " That many savours and 

 tastes may be felte in one herb : take first of the lettuce two 

 or three seeds, of the endive so many, of the smallage the 

 lyke, of the Basil, the Leek and the Parsley. Put altogether 

 into a hole and there will spring up a plant having so many 

 savours or tastes." He cautions one to pay respect to the 

 stars, " whose Beames of lighte and influence boothe quicken, 

 comfort e, preserve and mayntayne or ells nippe, drye, 

 wyther, consume and destroye by sundrye ways the tender 

 seedes." After a lengthy and confusing astrological dis- 

 course, he adds apologetically that perchance " the most 



