MONASTIC GARDENING. 17 



garden."* At Norwich, the Sacristan seems to have had more 

 than one garden, as a very cursory glance at the MS. accounts 

 of that office shows the names of both "St. Mary's" and the 

 "green garden." f There was a " gardinum Sacristae " at Win- 

 chester as early as the ninth century,! and to this day a piece 

 of ground on the east side of the north transept of the cathedral 

 bears the name of " Paradise," and marks the site of the 

 Sacrist's garden. The fifteenth century doorway, which was 

 the entrance to the enclosure, is still standing. 



Such a garden as this is referred to when the Abbot of Ramsey, 

 between 1114-1130, had to come to some agreement about certain 

 pieces of land in London which adjoined the property of the 

 Priory of the Holy Trinity ; and the Prior consented "to give 

 up his claim which he had upon the chapel of the Abbot, and the 

 garden which is before the chapel." These " gardini Sacristae " 

 were not only found within monastic precincts, but were attached 

 to many churches and chapels. The Hortulanus of Abingdon let 

 out a garden " next to St. Nicholas' Church," to the Rector, for 

 a term of years. || There is an interesting record of the chapel 

 garden in the Manor of Wookey, in Somersetshire, which 

 belonged to the Bishops of Bath and Wells, in the account of 

 the Reeve of that place for the year 1461-2.1" Three men were 

 employed for four and a half days at two pence a day, " digging 

 and cleaning the chapel garden." 



Henry VI. left such a garden to the church of Eton College. 

 The clause in his will runs thus : " The space between the wall of 

 the church and the wall of the cloister shall conteyne 38 feet, 



* Abingdon Accounts. R. E. G. Kirk : 



1388-9, et de iiij bussellis frumenti de Sacrista pro orto suo, nichil hie in* 



denarijs quia recipiuntur in sua specie ut patet extra, 

 f Sacrist Account, MS. Norwich : 

 1431. " In weeding in the garden of St. Mary, 2s." 

 1428. " For weeding in the ' green garden.' " 



1489. " Received for the trunk of a pear-tree blown down by the wind, lid." 

 Gardener's account, 1472. " For farm of the garden of the Sacrist, 2s." 



* Wharton, Anglia Sacra. Part I., p. 209. 



Cartularium Monasterii de Rameseia. Vol. I., p. 133. 

 || 1413. Accounts, by Kirk. 



1 History of the Parish and Manor of Wookey, by T. S. Holmes. 



2 



