230 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Towards the latter end of the sixteenth century it is 

 mentioned by more than one writer. Cogan, in his 

 ' Haven of Health,' published in 1597, says, that 

 ' although many men love to eat turnips, yet do swine 

 abhor them.' Gerarde, who published in the same 

 year, and who had rather more rational views on the 

 subject of plants, leads us to conclude that more than 

 one variety was cultivated in the environs of London 

 at that time. ' The small turnip,' says he, ' grown by 

 a village near London, called Hackney, in a sandie 

 ground, and brought to the Crosse in Cheapside by the 

 women of that village to be solde, are the best that I 

 ever tasted. Gerarde is silent concerning the field cul- 

 ture of turnips; neither is this mentioned by Parkin- 

 son, who wrote in 1629. It is not until the close of 

 the seventeenth century that we can find any account 

 of this root being thus cultivated in any part of the 

 country. 



The turnip, in some of its varieties, is of very uni- 

 versal culture throughout Europe. In Sweden it is 

 a very favourite vegetable. We also learn from the 

 interesting journal of Linnaeus, that even so far north 

 as Lapmark the colonists sow annually a considerable 

 quantity of turnip-seed, which frequently succeeds very 

 well and produces a plentiful crop. The native Lap- 

 landers are so fond of this root that they are often 

 induced to part with a whole cheese in exchange for 

 one single turnip, 'than which nothing,' our author 

 adds, ' can be more foolish.'* 



In Russia, turnips are used as fruit and eaten 

 with avidity by all classes. In the houses of the 

 nobility, the raw turnip cut in slices is handed about 

 on a silver salver, with brandy, as a provocative to the 

 more substantial meal. ' The first nobleman of the 

 empire,' says Dr Clarke, ' when dismissed by his 

 sovereign from attendance upon his person, may be 



* Vol. i, p. 174. 



