The Dissolution of the Monasteries. 275 



leek. Other vegetables may possibly be entitled to as long a 

 pedigree, but none can vie in historical importance with this 

 wholesome root. That it was a garden product at the begin- 

 ning of the fifth century is proved by its mention in the 

 miracle of S. Ninian. Its lofty elevation into a national 

 emblem is stated by an old writer at the end of the seventeenth 

 century to have arisen out of a great battle fought between the 

 English and Welsh, in which the victory gained by the latter 

 was chiefly on account of a sudden accession of confidence 

 occasioned by an appeal to the national saint, and which in- 

 spired them to act for once on the offensive. In doing this 

 they had to traverse certain fields of leeks, which, being 

 ]3lucked and placed in the hat, served as distinguishing badges, 

 and have been worn as such ever since in honour of S. David 

 on each anniversary of his death.' 



Harrison makes out that there were in England at the time 

 of Edward I., " melons, cucumbers, gourds, radishes, parsnips, 

 carrots, turnips, and other salad herbs, but that such herbs, 

 fruits, and roots as grew yearly out of the ground of seed (pre- 

 sumably the above species) became afterwards neglected, so 

 that from Henry IV's. to the beginning of Henry VIII. 's reign 

 there was little or no use of them in England." Gerarde, how- 

 ever, does not corroborate this view in his Herbal ; but it is 

 possible to reconcile the two accounts if we confine to a few 

 cloistered gardens of the monasteries the introduction of these 

 vegetables until the middle of the sixteenth century. That 

 strawberries of some inferior quality were in English gardens 

 at an earlier date is evident from the famous message of 

 Eichard III. to the Bishop of Ely. He asked the bishop to 

 send up some of the good strawberries which grew in the 

 latter's Holborn garden, just before he attended the council at 

 which he seized Hastings. 



The comparison between English and French knowledge of 

 horticulture is even less favourable, if the produce of the 

 orchard be substituted for that of the garden. English apples 

 were good ; but save these, damsons, and a few indifferent 



' The Neiv State of England, G.M. 1691, Part II. chap. iii. p. 45. 



