160 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



oranges on. a very green branch, telling him that they were the 

 fruit of Spain transplanted to England." . . . " The Ambassador 

 then divided the melon with their Majesties." * 



James I. made an attempt to promote mulberry-culture, with 

 a view to establishing a silk industry. He imported the trees from 

 France. They had been introduced from Italy into Provence about 

 a hundred years previously, and during the reign of Henri IV. 

 (1589-1610) into the Orleans district. King James in November, 

 1609, sent a circular-letter to the Lords-Lieutenant of all the 

 counties of England, ordering them to make public the announce- 

 ment that in the March following a thousand mulberry trees 

 would be delivered at each county town, and all who were able 

 were persuaded and required to buy them, at the rate of three 

 farthings the plant, or six shillings the hundred. He also had 

 a treatise on the cultivation of mulberries published. The 

 King set the example by having four acres planted with 

 mulberry trees, near the palace of Westminster. The large 

 sum of 935 was the cost of walling in the area, and levelling 

 the ground and planting the trees. f Among the MSS. at 

 Hatfield, there is the draft dated 1606 of a patent for the 

 importation of mulberry trees: the Patentee was to bring in, 

 " only the white mulberry and such as shall be plants of 

 themselves, and not slips of others, and of one year's growth." 

 Each year he was to bring at least a million, which he should 

 cause to be planted and preserved, and he was not to take 

 above a penny for each plant. Cecil, in furtherance of the 

 King's scheme, himself bought five hundred trees from France 

 in 1608, but it is not known where they were planted. In the 

 Exchequer Rolls, under the date 1608, we find 100 for trees 

 and plants for silkworms, and in 1618 " 50 to the keeper of the 

 gardens at Theobalds for making a place for the King's silkworms 

 and providing mulberry leaves/' The solitary mulberry trees, 

 so often to be seen in gardens in many parts of England, were 

 probably planted when this effort was made to bring them into 

 notice. But a few trees, still in existence, are even older. The 



* Translation of a Spanish MS. in the British Museum, printed in 

 England as Seen by Foreigners. By Brenchley Rye. 

 t Issue Rolls, Jamss I. By Devon. 



