NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 123 



cale; but long after their days the cultivation of gardens 

 was little attended to. 1 The religious, being men of leisure, 

 and keeping up a constant correspondence with Italy, were 

 the first people among us that had gardens and fruit-trees 

 in any perfection within the wall of their abbies and 

 priories. The barons neglected every pursuit that did not 

 lead to war or tend to the pleasure of the chase. 



It was not till gentlemen took up the study of horti- 

 culture themselves that the knowledge of gardening made 

 such hasty advances. Lord Cobham, Lord Ila, and Mr. 

 Waller, of Beaconsfield, were some of the first people of 

 rank that promoted the elegant science of ornamenting 

 without despising the superintendence of the kitchen 

 quarters and fruit walls. 



A remark made by the excellent Mr. Ray, in his Tour of 

 Europe, at once surprises us, and corroborates what has been 

 advanced above ; for we find him observing so late as his 

 days, that "The Italians use several herbs for sallets, which 

 are not yet, or have not been but lately, used in England, 

 viz. selleri (celery), 2 which is nothing else but the sweet 

 smallage ; the young shoots whereof, with a little of the 

 head of the root cut off, they eat raw with oil and 

 pepper ; " and further he adds : " curled endive blanched 

 is much used beyond seas ; and, for a raw sallet, seemed to 

 excel lettuce itself." Now this journey was undertaken no 

 longer ago than in the year 1663. 



I am, &c. 



1 As our Saxon ancestors called the month of February " sprout-cale," so the 

 names of many other months were equally significant : viz., March, Stormy 

 Month ; May, Trimilki, the cows being milked three times a day ; June, Dig- 

 and-Weed Month ; September, Barley Month," &c. MITFORD. [See Jardine's 

 ed., p. 216.] 



2 As Bell points out (vol. i. p. 208, note), Gilbert White adopted the spelling 

 "celeri." See Garden Kalendar (vol. i. p. 260). [R. B. S.] 



