102 THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH 



that the art of gardening, like that of farming, had declined during 

 the period which preceded Tudor times. Yet in the decadent 

 fifteenth century, rape, carrots, parsnips, turnips, cabbages, leeks, 

 onions, garlic, as well as numerous " Herbes for Potage," and 

 " Herbes for a salade " appeared in a book on gardens, 1 or in the 

 recipes of cookery books. On the other hand, it is said that, in 

 the reign of Henry VIII., Queen Catherine was provided with salads 

 from Flanders, because none could be furnished at home, and that 

 onions and cabbages, known in the reign of Henry III. and praised 

 by Piers Plowman, were in the first part of the fifteenth century 

 imported from the Low Countries. Now, however, in the reign of 

 Henry VIII. and onwards, gardening, as Fuller says, began to creep 

 out of Holland into England. In Shakespeare's day, it may be 

 remembered that potatoes 2 as yet only " rained from the sky " and 

 that Anne Page would rather 



" be set quick i' the earth, 

 And bowled to death with turnips," 



than marry the wrong man. Sandwich became famous for its 

 carrots, and in the neighbourhood of Fulham, and along the Suffolk 

 coast, gardens were laid out in which vegetables were extensively 

 cultivated. In rich men's gardens potatoes found a place after 

 1585, though for some years to come, they were regarded, and sold, 

 as luxuries. Here then were accumulating new sources of future 

 advance in farming. Yet progress must have been slow. Robert 

 Child, writing anonymously on the " Deficiencies " of agriculture 

 in 1651, 3 says : " Some old men in Surrey, where it (the Art of 

 Gardening) flourisheth very much at present, report, That they 

 knew the first Gardiners that came into those parts, to plant Cab- 

 ages, Colleflowers, and to sowe Turneps, Garrets, and Parsnips, and 

 to sowe Edith [early] Pease, all of which at that time were great 

 rarities, we having few, or none in England, but what came from 

 Holland and Flaunders." He goes on to say that he could name 

 " places, both in the North and West of England, where the name 

 of Gardening and Howing is scarcely knowne, in which places a few 

 Gardiners might have saved the lives of many poor people, who 

 have starved these dear years." 



1 The Feate of Gardeninge, by Mayster Ion Gardener, printed in Archaeologia, 

 vol. liv., with a glossary by Mrs. Evelyn Cecil. 



2 Merry Wives of Windsor, Act. v. Sc. 5 and Act iii. Sc. 4. 

 Hartlib's Legacie (1651), pp. 11-12. 



