MONA S TIC GA RDEXIXG. 



13 



Some items occur without variation every year, such as the 

 payments to the servants ; and their tunics, boots and gloves. 

 The gloves are not uncommon entries ; they appear among the 

 accounts of Bicester,* Bury, Holy Island, and other places. 

 They were probably thick gloves for weeding. 



The O of the gardener is also of regular occurrence, as it was 

 expenses at a yearly feast, and it is thought the O refers to the 



Psalm sung on the occasion by the Hortulanus, commencing 

 " O Radix Jesse." In the Abingdon Accounts it is entered, 

 '^To O Radix, 6s. lod.," and another time (a.d. 1388) still 

 more at length, "In expensis factis pro mittent exeunia ad O 

 Radix XVId." 



"-•' Blomefield, History of Bicester. 



