DAWX OF l.AXnSCAI'l-: (JARDHMXa. -r^w 



afore-named beds, there \ve:e here long asparagus-beds. Their 

 height above the ground was two feet ; on the top the\' were 

 similarl}- covered witli glass, matting, and straw, which had 

 just been all taken off at midda}-. The Asparagus under them 

 was one inch high and considerably thick." '^ Radishes were 

 also grown in the same garden, and the beds covered with 

 mats. In the month of May, he says, the vegetables, which 

 were most numerous round London, were beans, peas, cab- 

 bages of different sorts, leeks, chives, radishes, lettuce (salad), 

 asparagus, and spinach. He writes of Chelsea, " There is scarcely 

 anything else than either orchards or vegetable market gardens, 

 and large fields all planted full of all kinds of small trees for 

 sale." 



Thus it will be seen that great strides had been made in 

 vegetable-culture. In some things, however, gardeners still had 

 very primitive ideas. When, in 1729, an aloe {Agave) flowered 

 in " Mr. Cowell's garden at Hoxton," there was great excitement 

 as to how it should be kept through the winter.t The plant 

 was then twenty feet high, and an erection of wood and 

 glass was built over it, and stoves placed outside with pipes 

 to " convey a due proportion (.^f heat," and it was so arranged 

 that the structure could be heightened, if necessary, to suit 

 the " unexpected growth of this famous plant." They must 

 have been much distressed to find all this care and expense of 

 little use, as not only the llower, but moft of the plant itself 

 would soon perish. 



A great many of the vegetables, grown in these market 

 gardens, would be sold in the streets of London. The various 

 cries of the hawkers were a notable feature of London life. One 

 among the many refrains of this perpetual chorus is recalled 

 by Addison, + when he writes: — "I am alw<^^s pleased with 

 that particular time of the year which is proper for the pickling 

 of dill and cucumbers, but alas ! this cry, like the song of the 



•-' Kahii's ]'isit to E)ig]aiid. Translated by Joseph Lucas, i8g2. 



y .4 7 me Account of t/ie Aloe Aiiierictiua or Africnna now in floiver in 

 Ml'. Coiiu'l/'s Garden at Hoxton. . . . The like ivlierof has never been seen in 

 England before. 1729. 



X Spectator, .751. 



