61 



KLAPROTHIUM. 



KNIGHT, KNIGHTHOOD. 



be trained against them. This requires the enclosure of a slip, con- 

 taining the wall-border, a walk, and a border between the latter and 

 the outside fence. If this outside or ring-fence were formed of 

 materials on which young trees could be trained, so as to fill any 

 accidental vacancy that may occur on the principal walls, great 

 advantages would accrue, for then the walla would always appear 

 filled with trees in a bearing state. Such nursery trees should be 

 carefully moved every second year, so that they may always be in a 

 proper condition for their final destination. 



The interior departments of the kitchen-garden are usually bounded 

 by fruit-trees planted within two or three feet of the walks. Not only 

 are bushes, such as gooseberries, currants, and raspberries, used for 

 this purpose, but fruit-trees of various kinds. The latter are trained 

 either as dwarfs by grafting apples on paradise stocks, and pears on 

 quinces, and causing their branches to proceed from near the ground ; 

 or as espaliers. The latter were formerly more in use for training 

 fruit-trees in kitchen-gardens than they are at the present time. Some 

 object to their appearance, others to their expense compared with 

 their utility. Then- appearance is certainly not unsightly if they are 

 nut made too high; and although the old varieties of fruit-trees trained 

 upon this plan were unprofitable, yet many of the new kinds will 

 produce abundantly. They occupy very little space, and their shade, 

 if not made higher than six feet, can be scarcely injurious, especially 

 as it can be made to fall chiefly on the walk. 



Very few of the subjects of kitchen-garden cultivation are indige- 

 nous ; they are chiefly varieties of luxuriant habits, which are 

 artificially maintained and augmented by the art of the cultivator. 

 The principal means employed for rendering the soil of the kitchen- 

 garden subservient to this purpose are, the application of abundance 

 of manure ; trenching, digging, and otherwise stirring the soil ; and a 

 due rotation of crops. Manure supplied in abundance will generally 

 produce luxuriance in vegetables, although sometimes a disagreeable 

 rankness is communicated to the flavour. This is in a great measure 

 corrected by trenching, which becomes occasionally highly necessary ; 

 and although .expensive, it will always repay the cost, if judiciously 

 performed, particularly if the soil be of a consolidating nature. 

 Trenching exposes fresh soil, and gives rest to that which has been 

 partially exhausted on the surface ; it renders the soil pervious to water 

 and air, and likewise for the roots of the plants ; in wet weather the 

 are free from stagnant moisture ; and in drought they seldom 

 sufl'er, because they have been able to penetrate the soil so far as to be 

 beyond the reach of dryness. Moreover, if a thermometer is plunged 

 in well loosened soil, after a few days of hot sun in March, it will be 

 found to indicate a temperature many degrees above that in more 

 compact earth, or where the soil has not been stirred for several years. 

 The advantage of this communication of heat is obvious, especially 

 when it is borne in mind that a number of kitchen-garden plants are 

 natives of c< >unt lies possessing a warmer soil and climate than those of 

 Britain. 



It is always advantageous to, attend to a proper rotation of crops, 

 especially where manure is not abundantly applied, nor trenching 

 performed. One kind of plant should not immediately follow another 

 of the same nature, or one closely allied. The selection of the plants 

 or vegetables grown must depend wholly on the tastes and requisitions 

 of the owners, but we may add that many of the commoner vegetables 

 are most profitably raised by field cultivation. 



(Lindley, Theory ami Practice of Ifurticuilurc, 1855 ; Loudon, 

 in of Gardening, 1850.) 



KI.AI'ltuTHIUM. [CADMIUM.] 



KXKJHT, KNIGHTHOOD. During the prevalence of the feudal 

 system, when the military strength of the nation was measured by the 

 number and efficiency of the knights whom the sovereign was able to 

 summon to the field, a regular supply of persons qualified to perform 

 in an effectual manner the services annexed to their tenures was a 

 matter in which the public as well as the crown were deeply 

 interested; and the common law adopted that part of the feudal 

 system which enabled the king, by process of distress [DISTRESS], to 

 compel those who held knight's fees [KNIGHT'S FEES] to take upon 

 themselves the order of knighthood, or, in other words, to prove, by 

 their reception into that order, that they had received the training and 

 possessed the arms and accoutrements, and were, as to other requisites, 

 qualified to take the field as knights. The statute, or rather the grant 

 1 Iward II., enrolled in parliament, called " Statutum de Militibus," 

 appears to have been made, partly as an indulgence upon the com- 

 mencement of a new reign, and partly for the purpose of removing 

 nn'i doubts which existed as to the persons liable to be called upon 

 to receive knighthood. The king thereby, in the first place, granteii 

 a respite until the following Christmas to all those who ought to have 

 become, but were not, knights, and were then distrained ad arma 

 mililaria ttucipienda. Further, it directed that if any complained in 

 Chancery that he was distrained and had not land to the value of 402 

 in fee, or for term of hi* life, and was ready to verify that by the 

 country (that i, by the decision of a jury), then some discreet ant 

 lawful knight* of tho county should be written to, in order to make 

 inquisition of the matter; and if they found it to be so, he was to have 

 redress, and the distress was to cease. Again, where a person was 

 impli i.l .1 ! ., the whole of his land, or for so much of it that the 

 remainder was not of the value of 401., and he could verify the fact 



;hen also the distresss was to cease till that plea was determined. 

 Again, where a person was bound in certain debts atterrniuated in the 

 exchequer at a certain sum to be received thereof annually (that is, 

 respited, subject to payment by instalments), and the remainder of his 

 .and was not worth 4(M. per annum, the distress was to cease till the 

 debt was paid. No one was to be distrained ad arma militana susci- 

 menda, till the age of twenty-one, or on account of land which he held 

 in manors of the ancient demesne of the crown as a sokeman, inasmuch 

 as those lands were liable to pay a tallage when the king's lands were 

 lallaged. With respect to those who held laud in socage of other 

 manors, and who performed no servitium forinsecttm, or service due. 

 upon the tenure, though not expressed in tne grant, the rolls of 

 chancery in the times of the long's predecessors were to be searched, 

 and it was to be ordered according to the former custom ; the same of 

 clerks in holy orders holding any lay fee, who would, if laymen, have 

 been liable to become knights. No one was to be distrained in respect 

 of property of burgage tenure. Persons under obligations to become 

 knights, who had held their laud only a short time, were extremely 

 old, or had an infirmity in their limbs, or had some incurable disease, 

 or the impediment of children, or law-suits, or other necessary excuses, 

 were to appear and make fine before two commissioners named in the 

 act, who were to take discretionary fines from such disabled persons by 

 way of composition. Under this regulation, those who were distrained 

 upon as holding land of the value of 40/. per' annum either received 

 knighthood or made fine to the king. The alteration in the nominal 

 value of money occasioned by the increased quantity of the precious 

 metals, and still more by successive fraudulent degradations of the_ 

 standard, gradually widened the circle within which estates were sub- 

 jected to this burden ; and in the 16th and 17th centuries lands which 

 in the reign of Edward II. were not perhaps worth 4t per annum, had 

 risen in nominal value to 40/., and were often held by persons belong- 

 ing to a totally different class from those who were designated by 

 1 Edward II., stat. 1, as persons having 40 libmtas terras. 



That power of compelling those who refused to take upon themselves 

 the order of knighthood, or rather of distraining them till they received 

 knighthood, or compounded with the king by way of fine, which 

 originally was a means of enforcing the performance of a duty to the 

 crown and to the public, by persons holding a certain position and 

 having a certain stake in the country, was perverted into a process for 

 extorting money from those who wouldliave been exempt at common 

 law, which regulated the amount of a knight's fee by the sufficiency of 

 the land to support a knight, and not by Ha fluctuating nominal value 

 in a debased currency. This oppressive, if not dishonest proceeding, 

 which was occasionally resorted to in the reigns of Edward VI. and 

 Elizabeth, was reduced into a system by the rash advisers of Charles I., 

 and was adopted by that unfortunate prince as one of the modes by 

 which money might be raised without resorting to a parliament for 

 assistance. The undisguised manner in which this ancient prerogative 

 was thus abused, led to its total abolition. By 16 and 17 Car. I., c. 20, 

 it is enacted, that none shall be compelled, by writ or otherwise, to 

 take upon him the order of knighthood, and that all proceedings con- 

 cerning the same shall be void. 



Persons have been required to take upon themselves the order of 

 knighthood as a qualification for the performance of honourable services 

 at coronations, in respect of the Lauds which they held by grand 

 serjeanty. 



Knighthood in England is now conferred by the king (or queen when 

 the throne is filled by a female) by simple verbal declaration attended 

 with a slight form, without any patent or other written instrument. 

 Sometimes, but rarely, knighthood is conferred on persons who do not 

 come into the presence of royalty. This is occasionally done to governors 

 of colonies, and other persons in prominent stations abroad. The lord- 

 lieutenan#t)f Ireland has a delegated authority of conferring this honour, 

 which is very sparingly exercised. 



Knighthood gives to the party precedence over esquires and other 

 untitled gentlemen. " Sir " is prefixed to the baptismal name of knights 

 and baronets, and their wives have the legal designation of u Dame " 

 which is ordinarily converted into " Lady." Knighthood is, however, 

 not hereditary, but merely personal. 



A rank correspondent to our rank of knighthood has been found in 

 all Christian countries. Some regard it as a kind of continuation of 

 the equestrian order among the Romans. But it is safer to regard it 

 as originating in Christian times; and the llth and 12th centuries 

 have been named as the period to which the order of knighthood as 

 now existing may be traced. In such on inquiry there are two diffi- 

 culties : first, to state with sufficient precision what is the thing to be 

 proved ; and, secondly, to obtain evidence of the commencement of an 

 institution which probably grew, almost insensibly, out of a state of 

 society common to the whole of civilised Europe. 



It was a military institution, but there appears to have been some- 

 thing of a religious character belonging to it, and the order of knight 

 hood, like the orders of the clergy, could be conferred only by persons 

 who were themselves members of the order. 



In early times some knights undertook the protection of pil^Tims ; 

 others were vowed to the defence or recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. 

 Some, knights-errant, roved about " seeking adventures," a phrase no 

 confined to books of romance, of which there are many on this subject 

 but found in serious and authentic documents. 



