156 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



king also wishing to possess the place, effected an exchange of land 

 with the bishop. Ely was in early times famous for its vines, and 

 doubtless vineyards existed also at Hatfield during the centuries 

 it was Church property, so that when Cecil planted a vineyard it- 

 was no new experiment. Mme. de la Boderie, wife of the French 

 ambassador, sent thirty thousand vines to be set in the new 

 vineyard, which are referred to in the following letter to Cecil :* 

 . . . " understanding your Lordship's speech yesterday, that you 

 were about to send some present of gratification to Mme. de la 

 Boderye in regard of your vines, Lest your Lordship's bounty 

 which knows the true limitts of honor of it self, should be misledd 

 by my disesteeming the things upon a sodayne when I valued 

 them but att 40 I thought good to let your Lordship know 

 before it be too late that I misreckned myselfe for 20,000 

 at 8 crowns the thousand, cometh to near 50 sterling, besydes 

 the cariage and besydes, the ambassador sent me word yesterday 

 by his maistr-d'Hostel that there are 10,000 more a coming 

 which he hath consigned to be delivered heer to me for your 

 Lordship's use." As these were more plants than the vineyard 

 would hold, some were kept in a nursery to put later in the 

 place of any that were " defectyve or dying." A few muscat, 

 and other vines, not grown before in England, were brought 

 from Paris, by Tradescant, who was then director of Cecil's 

 garden, and he also received five hundred plants from the 

 Queen of France ; Pierre Collin and Jean Vallet, who probably 

 brought over this present, were permanently engaged to plant 

 and dress the vineyard. This vineyard does not appear to have 

 been kept up for many years, as the last reference to it among 

 the family papers is dated 1638, in which year Lady Hatton sent 

 some vine cuttings. 



In spite of the efforts of the writers of the early seventeenth 

 century, vine-culture was never really revived in England, 

 and vineyards gradually ceased to be planted. A few isolated 

 instances occur later on. Brandy is said to have been made at 

 Beaulieu in the last century, and Fairchild, in 1722, had a 

 flourishing vineyard in Hoxton. These were probably nearly the 

 last serious attempts at vine-culture. 



* From family papers belonging to the Marquess of Salisbury. 



