252 A HJSTURV OF GARDEXIXG L\ EXGLAXD. 



cucumbers, suggesting various glasses and frames, for their 

 protection. The following is quoted from Bradley, and gives 

 the names of some of the pioneers in early forcii:g : — " The 

 first which are Kitchen Gardens and exceed all the other gardens 

 in Europe for wholesome Produce and variety of Herbs are 

 those at the Neat-Houses near Tuttle-fields, Westminster, which 

 abound in Salads, early Cucumbers, Collifiowers, Melons, Winter 

 Asparagus, and almost every Herb fitting the Table : and I 

 think there is no where so good a school for a Kitchen gardener 

 as this Place ; tho' Battersea affords the largest natural 

 Asparagus and the earliest Cabbages. Again, the Gardens 

 about Hammersmith are as famous for Strawberries, Rasberries, 

 Currants, Gooseberries, and such like ; and if earlv Fruit is 

 our Desire Mr. Millet's, at North End, near the same Place, 

 affords us Cherries, Apricocks, and Curiosities of those kinds, 

 some months before the Natural Season." Another good 

 nurseryman near London was Nicholas Parker at Chiswick. 

 He is highly recommended by Lawrence as known to all men 

 for his "honesty, skill and integrity," which seems more than 

 could be said of all in the same trade. They were inclined 1o 

 cheat and send out inferior varieties of fruit, in the place of those 

 ordered by the purchaser, " a dr\' insipid Nectorine " instead of 

 " an old Newington Peach, or instead of a rich French Pear 

 a gritty choak-pear or Warden." ^ 



Kalm, the great Swedish horticulturalist, after whom the 

 genus Kalmia was named, who passed through England on his 

 way to America, in 1748, was struck by the market-gardens and 

 early vegetables which he saw. He describes some gardens 

 where the beds were raised, sloping a little towards the sun, 

 and " most of them were at this time (February) covered with 

 glass frames, which could be taken off at will. . . . Russian 

 matting over these, and straw over that four inches thick. 

 These contained cauliflowers some four inches high. In the 

 rest of the field were ' bell-glasses,' under which also cauliflower- 

 plant.: were set 3 or 4 under each bell-glass. Besides the 



* The Clerfrvmini's Recreation. Jolin Lawrence, Rector of YeKcrtoft, 

 Nnrtliampt on shire. 



