78 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



Ful of appel-tres, and als of pine 



Foules songe therinne murie. 



Amideward that gardyn fre, 



So wax a pinnote-tre 



That had fair bowes and frut ; 



Ther under was al his dedut 



He made ther-under a grene bench, 



And drank ther under many a sschench (cupful)." 



"The Seven Sages," WEBER, III, 23. 



Culmination Under Edward I the mediaeval prosperity of the 



of pros- 



perity under English may be said to have culminated. It declined 

 under the weak or warlike reigns of his successors, until 

 during the Wars of the Roses much that civilization had 

 gained seemed to have been lost. 



The king's " The improvement in husbandry and horticulture 

 onhorticui- was as satisfactory as the advance made in the fine 

 arts. Here the influence of the king was specially felt. 

 Though engaged in war or busy with legislative cares, 

 Edward found time to attend to the cultivation of his 

 desmesnes and the stocking of his gardens and 

 orchards. Strangely mingled with the demands of the 

 campaign against the Scots or with the requirements 

 of the politician or the pleasures of the sportsman are 

 directions to procure new cuttings of fruit trees and 

 seeds of vegetables for the table. Fruit and forest 

 trees, shrubs, and flowers introduced from the conti- 

 nent were naturalized in the king's gardens or in those 

 of the nobility and the larger religious houses. In 

 * stately gardens ' both the lemon and orange were 



