EARLY TUDOR GARDEXS. 97 



And again, 

 Also 



" Dig garden, strov* mallow, now may ye at ease 

 And set (as a dainte) thy nmciuall pease." 



"Sowe pease (good trullf) 

 the moone past full 

 Stick bows a rowe 



where runciuals growe." 



" Set plentie of bows among runciuall pease 



to climber thereon, and to branch at their ease." 



These quotations show that runcival peas were a favourite 

 dainty. They were a large kind of pea, and the name is 

 supposed to be derived from Roncesvalles, in the Pyrenees. 

 Tusser also gives directions for picking beans — 



" Not rent off, but cut off ripe beane with a knife 

 For hindering stalke of hir vegetive life 

 So gather the lowest, and leaning the top 

 Shall teach thee a trick, for to double thy crop." 



In the ordinary course of things, little would have to be 

 bought for a garden, as seeds would be saved, and plants 

 divided and exchanged among friends, year by year. 



" Good huswifes in sommer will saue their owne seedes 

 against the next yeere, as occasion needes 

 One seede for another, to make an exchange 

 With fellowlie neighbourhood seemeth not strange." 



Consequently, in old account books we do not find many entries 

 for things bought to stock the garden. But the making so 

 many fine new gardens must have created a demand for 

 plants with which to furnish them. The large quantities of 

 things bought for the newly laid-out gardens could only have 

 been supplied by regular nurserymen, and market gardeners. 

 For instance, such amounts as five hundred rose trees, six 

 hundred cherry trees % at 6d. per hundred, could hardly have 

 been grown in private gardens. 



We had a glance at the fruit and vegetable market of 



* Expression often used probably for the sake of rhythm. =^'weed, or 

 destroy, ivild nialloiv, a coiiiinoii iveed. 

 ■f =^ good girl, or lass. 

 X Hampton Court Account. 



7 



