14 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



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 the O refers to the antiphon 

 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-exennia ad O Radix 

 XVId." This " Radix Jesse " was the third of the seven 

 Roman or Gregorian Great Os,^ the antiphons which preceded 

 and again followed the Magnificat at vespers before Christmas. 

 The first, O Sapientia, was sung on December i6th, and the day 

 is still marked in the Kalendar of the Book of Common Prayer. 

 The Abbot seems usually to have been the officiant on that 

 occasion ; the Prior sang the next, " O Adonai," and on the 

 19th the Hortulanus was the officiant, and sang the special 

 antiphon. The well-known Advent hymn, " O come, O come, 

 Emmanuel," is a translation by John Mason Neale (1818-1866) 

 of a Latin versification of five of the Great Os written about 

 the thirteenth century ; the second verse of this hymn being a 

 paraphrase of the O of the gardener. 



It will be noticed also that in these and other accounts 

 the tithe is deducted. The year in which it first was enacted 

 that tithe should be paid " of fruit trees and every seed 

 and herb of the garden" was a.d. 1305, the decree insisting 

 on the payment being issued by the Council at Merton, in 

 Surrey.^ 



The chief variations as a rule are in the tools bought, and in 

 the repairs. " For a saw," " knives for herbs," " mending a 

 hatchet," " repairs of the garden wall," " lock and keys for the 

 gates," etc. ; and sometimes fruit, apples, cherries, beans, 

 onions, or such-like, had to be bought when the garden supply 



^ Blomefield, History of Bicester. 



^ ArcbcBologia, vol. xlix. Article by Everard Green, F.S.A. 

 ' Wilkins' Concilia, vol. ii., p. 278; " Mcrtonense," 1305, " et de 

 fructibus arbor um et seminibus omnibus et herbis hortorum." 



