O The Scented Qarden fj£ 



Apples, too, were widely used, not only in the medicines 

 prescribed by the physicians, but also in homely remedies, 

 and the smell of apples was accounted very wholesome. 

 John Key, who was physician to Queen Mary, and later 

 to Elizabeth, had great faith in even the smell of apples. 

 In his book, which was published in 1552, he counselled 

 his patients, when feeling weak after a dangerous illness, 

 to ' smell to an old swete apple for there is nothing more 

 comfortable to the spirits than good and swete odours.' 

 Apple juice and pulp were widely used in cosmetics and 

 ' comfort apples,' as they were called (apples stuck with 

 cloves), were the poor man's substitute for the orange stuck 

 with cloves of the rick folk. One recalls a passage by Ralph 

 Austen, that great lover of orchards and of the scent of 

 their blossoms : ' Sweet perfumes work immediately 

 upon the spirits for their refreshing ; sweet and health- 

 full ayres are special preservatives to health, and therefore 

 much to be prised. The most pleasant and wholesome 

 odours are from the blossomes of Fruit-Trees, which 

 having in them a condensing and cooling property are 

 therefore not simply Healthfull, but are accompted 

 Cordiall, chearing and refreshing the Heart and vital 

 spirits.' 1 I wonder why we do not revert to the mediaeval 

 custom of growing fruit trees in small pleasure gardens. 

 There are thousands of small gardens where there is only 

 space for a few shrubs and very frequently one sees shrubs 

 which are in beauty for only one season. But fruit trees 

 have two seasons of great beauty. A Captain John 

 Taverner, writing as early as 1600, advised that all the 

 highways in England should be planted with fruit trees, 

 and he added the sensible suggestion that anyone should 



1 Ralph Austen. A Treatise oj Fruit Trees, 1653. 

 82 



