15<i A HISTORY OF GARDENIXG IX EXGLAXD. 



four trees in the West garden at Hatfield were, according to 



tradition, planted by Queen Elizabeth; one in the garden at Syon 



House was planted when the place was still a monastery, and at 



Ribston, in Yorkshire, there is a fine old tree which dates from 



the time when it was in the hands of the Templars, or of 



the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who succeeded them. 



Shakespeare twice refers to the fruit : — 



"Volumnia . . thy stout heart 

 Now humble as the ripest mulberry 

 That will not hold the handling." 



Coriolanus, act iii. scene 2. 



He could not with one masterly touch of the pen have described 



this peculiarity of the fruit, had it not been familiar to him. 



The custom of strewing rushes (various species of Juncus) on 



the floor, was verv' general in the Middle Ages. Frequently we 



find notes of payments for rushes, such as in loth of Henry III., 



1226, " I2d. for hay and rushes for the Baron's chamber," and 



in the Household Rolls of Sir John Howard, 1464, item " paid 



to gromes off chamber for reshis i6d." Queen Mary's presence 



chamber was strewn with rushes, also that of Elizabeth, though 



she added thereto the luxury of a Turkey carpet. In Princess 



Elizabeth's accounts, 1551-2, a small sum was entered "to the 



steward for rushes." The guest chambers were always freshly 



strewn : — 



" So here a chamber . 



* * * 



I shall warande fare strewed 



It should not else to you be showed." * 



In the Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio, just after his marriage, 

 sends his servant to Grumio to prepare the house for his bride. 

 Grumio arrives late, and in haste calls, "Where's the cook? is 

 supper ready, the house trimmed, rushes strewed, cobwebs 

 swept?" Such had been for long years the custom^ but in 

 Henry the Eighth's reign an improvement on the plain rushes 

 became the fashion, and sweet-smelling herbs and flowers were 

 added. By Elizabeth's time this practice was much in vogue. 

 As early as 1516 "flowers and rushes" were purchased "for 

 chambers," for Henry \TII. In 1552, in Princess Elizabeth's 



* Toiuiiclt'v Miiiisti'v. 



