INTRODUCTORY 7 



has to be learnt by slow and hard lessons, dearly pur- 

 chased under the iron rod of experience. It is not till 

 the want of a green spot is brought painfully home to 

 people by its loss, that the thought of saving the last 

 remaining speck of greenery is borne in upon them with 

 sufficient force to transform the wish into action. For 

 generations garden after garden has passed into building 

 land. No one has a right to grudge the wealth or pros- 

 perity that has accrued in consequence, but the wish that 

 the benevolence and foresight of past days had taken a 

 different bent, and that a more systematic retention of 

 some of the town gardens had received attention, cannot 

 be banished. 



When Roman civilisation had been swept away in 

 Britain, and with it all vestiges of the earliest gardens, 

 there are no vestiges of horticulture until Christianity had 

 taken hold of the country, and religious houses were 

 rising up in various parts of the kingdom. The cradle 

 of modern gardening may be said to have been within 

 the peaceful walls of these monastic foundations. In no 

 part of the country were they more numerous than in 

 and around London, and it is probable that every estab- 

 lishment had its garden for the supply of vegetables, and 

 more particularly medicinal herbs. Attached to most 

 of them, there was also a special garden for the produc- 

 tion of flowers for decoration on church festivals. It is 

 probable that the earliest London gardens were of this 

 monastic character, and as long as the buildings were 

 maintained the gardens were in existence. The Grey, 

 the Black, the White, and the Austin Friars all had 

 gardens within their enclosures ; and the Hospitaller 

 Orders — the Templars and Knights of St. John — had 

 large gardens within their precincts. The Temple 



