230 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



distributing vines was Rose, gardener to Charles II. and author 

 of The English Vineyard Vindicated. He offered to " all that 

 desire it sets and plants of all the best vines sufficiently tried 

 in our soil and climate at reasonable prices."* And John 

 Beale, following his example, used to offer to give plants of 

 vines to " cottagers," but they generally answered "churlishly 

 that they would not be troubled with grapes " ; but when he 

 explained that in a few years their grapes would fetch a good 

 price in the markets, " they were soon of a more thankful 

 mind." 



In his Diary on June loth, 1658, Evelyn made the following 

 entry : "I went to see y e medical garden at Westminster well 

 stored with plants under Morgan, a very skilful botanist." Hugh 

 Morgan is twice mentioned by Johnson, in his edition of Gerard's 

 Herbal, as " The Queen's Apothecary," and " a curious conserver 

 of rare simples," and he notices a large specimen of the " Lote 

 or Nettle " tree, growing in Morgan's garden, near " Coleman Street, 

 in London." This Morgan was probably the same man whose 

 garden at Westminster Evelyn visited, but how long he kept up 

 this garden is uncertain.t When a physic-garden in Westminster, 

 presumably this one, was bought by the Apothecaries' Company, 

 in June, 1676, it was in other hands, as the Company bought the 

 lease from Mrs. Gape, with the liberty of moving the plants to 

 Chelsea Garden. J /The Physic Garden at Chelsea was founded 

 in 1673, and after a few years entirely superseded the one at 

 Westminster. The lease of the land at Chelsea from Charles 

 Cheyne (afterwards Lord Cheyne) was signed August 2gth, 1673, 

 for a term of sixty-one years, the rent 5 per annum, and the 

 following year a wall was built round the garden. The first 

 gardener was Piggott, who was succeeded in 1677 by Richard 

 Pratt. These gardeners received 30 a year, and their successor, 

 John Watts, 1679, got 50. The garden was managed by a 



* Letter concerning Orchards and Vineyards, John Beale, 1676. 



f " Master Morgan the gardiner at Westminster" and " Dr. How, one of 

 the Masters of the Physick Garden at Westminster," are mentioned by W. Coles 

 in his Art of Simpling, 1657. 



J Faulkner's Chelsea, Vol. II., pp. 174-176. 



History of the Apothecary's Garden. By Henry Field, 1820. 



