MONASTIC GARDENING. 15 



The gloves are not uncommon entries ; they appear among the 

 accounts of Bicester,* Bury, Holy Island, and other places. 

 They were probably thick gloves for weeding. 



The O of the gardener is also of regular occurrence, as 

 it was expenses at a yearly feast, and the O refers to the 

 Psalm sung on the occasion by the Hortulanus, commencing 

 " O Radix Jesse." In the Abingdon Accounts it is entered, 

 "To O Radix, 6s. iod.," and another time (A.D. 1388) still 

 more at length, " In expensis factis pro mittent-exennia ad O 

 Radix XVId." This "O Radix Jesse" was the third of the seven 

 Roman or Gregorian Great Os.t The first, O Sapientia, was 

 sung on December i6th, and the day is still marked in the 

 Kalendar of the Book of Common Prayer. The well-known 

 Advent hymn, " O come, O come, Emmanuel," is a translation 

 by John Mason Neale (1818-1866) of a Latin versification of 

 five of the Great Os written about the thirteenth century; the 

 second verse of this hymn being a paraphrase of the O of the 

 gardener. 



It will be noticed also that in these and other accounts the 

 tithe is deducted. The year in which it first was enacted that 

 tithe should be paid " of fruit trees and every seed and herb of 

 the garden," was A.D. 1305, the decree insisting on the payment, 

 being issued by the Council at Merton, in Surrey. J 



The chief variations as a rule are in the tools bought, and in 

 the repairs. " For a saw," " knives for herbs/' " mending a 

 hatchet," " repairs of the garden wall," " lock and keys for the 

 gates," &c. ; and sometimes fruit, apples, cherries, beans, 

 onions, or such like, had to be bought when the garden supply 

 fell short. But this " great garden " under the care of the 

 Hortulanus was not by any means the only garden. Many 

 other office holders had gardens too. 



In a plan compiled from the remains and the records of 

 Bicester Priory the relative positions of the various gardens, the 



* Blomefield, History of Bicester. 



t Archceologia, Vol. XLIX. Article by Everard Green, F.S.A. 

 J Wilkins' Concilia, Vol. II., p. 278; " Mertonense," 1305, "et defructibus 

 arborum et seminibus omnibus et herbis hortorum." 



