MONASTIC GARDENING. 19 



Also at St. Martin Outwich, London, 1524. 



Item F or r ose garlands on Corpus Christi day, 6d. Item For byrche at 

 Midsomer, 2d. Item For rose garlands, brede, wyne, & ale on 

 ij Sent Marten's days, iS^d. Item For holy and ivy at Chrystmas, 



1525. Paid for palme on Palme Sunday, 2*d. Paid for brome ageynst Ester, id. 

 Payd for rosse garlonds on Corpus Christi daye, 6d. 



When such decorating of churches was considered unlawful 

 after the Reformation, these gardens would naturally fall into 

 disuse, even where the lands they covered were not at once 

 appropriated for other purposes. 



In 1618, James I. set forth a declaration permitting certain 

 " lawfull recreations . . . after divine service,* and allowed that 

 women should have leave to carry rushes to the church for the 

 decoring of it according to their old custome." These rushes 

 may have been simply for the floor, and not for the altar or walls, 

 as, for example, we find in 1580, churchwardens at Wing, in 

 Buckinghamshire, spent id. for " one burden of roshes to strewe 

 the church howse agaynst the comyssyoners sate there. "f In 

 the vestry book of the Parish of St. Nicholas, Durham, 

 0:665-1703, there are several entries of the purchase of rushes for 

 the floor as well as for birch for decorating. " For Birkes for 

 the church at Whitsontide, is. 8d. To Lancelot Dunn for the 

 pewes of the church dressing, and for rashes laying in every pew 

 the 2ist of July 1670. 8s. "J 



Coles, writing as late as 1656, says : " It is not very long since 

 the custome of seting up garlands in churches hath been left off 

 with us : and in some places setting up of holly, ivy, rosemary, 

 bayes, yew, &c., in churches at Christmas, is still in use." This, 

 however, is looking too far ahead, and at the time we are 

 considering, the monks within the quiet cloister, week by week 

 and year by year, supplied the best flowers their skill and 

 knowledge could produce, to adorn their churches and chapels. 



* Fuller, Church History. London, 1655. Book X., p. 74. 

 f Archceologia. Vol. XXXVI., p. 238. 

 % Durham Parish Books. Surtees Society. 

 The Art of Simpling, by W. Coles. 1656. 



