90 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



It was a profitable crop, and Tiisser, who lived in the Eastern 

 counties, warns the husbandman not to forget it : 



" Pare saffron plot, 

 Forget it not ; 

 His dwelling made trim, 



look shortly for him. 

 When harvest is gone 



then saffron comes on ; 

 A little of ground 



brings saffron a pound. "^ 



The work in gardens of all sizes seems to have been superin- 

 tended by one head-gardener, who had the charge of the buying 

 and selling and planting of the garden-stuff ; but the actual 

 manual cultivation was done by labourers hired by the day, 

 and not by a permanent staff. The post of head-gardener in 

 any of the royal gardens was quite an important position. 

 The wages were from about £12 per annum, and all the money 

 for the payment of labourers passed through the head-gardener's 

 hands. ^ The labourers received 6d., 4d., or 3d. a day, or even 

 2d. a day if they were given food.^ The weeding was usually 

 done by women, and 3d. or 2d. a day was the ordinary wage."* 



^ Five Hundred Poinies of Goode Husbandrie — August. 



^ 1532. — " Also paid by the hands of the forsaid Edmund Gryff(yn) 

 (head-gardener), for digging, gathering, and sorting of the said trees, I2d. 

 Also paid to the said Edmund Gryff(yn), for carriage of the forsaid apple 

 trees, i5d." 



^ 1530. — " A gardener at 6d. a day." 



1530. — " To John Hutton, for making and levelling of beds in the 

 king's new garden, and raking of the same, by the space (of) 12 days at 

 4d. a day, 4s." [Hampton Court Accounts). 



May 8th, 1540. — " To Claaston, for mowyng of the garden at Hun- 

 stanton, 2d." September, 1543. — " For dyggen in the garden, 4d." 



December loth, 1549. — " 2 ffellowcs for helping in the garden for oon 

 week, 2S. 6d." (Le Strange, Household Books). 



1530. — " Paid to four gardeners for four days — March iSth, 2s. Sd." 

 [A Book of Receipts and Expenses of Cardinal's College, Oxford). 



* 1530. — " 5 labourers and 15 women wceders in the garden and the 

 orchard " ; again, "20 women weeders, 2 labourers, and 2 mowers " — a 

 list of the names of the weeders follows, and the men recei\cd 4d. per 

 day, the women 3d. {Hampton Court Accounts). 



April 23rd (1530). — " Paid to two women rooting up unprofitable 

 herbs (extirpantibus herbas inutiles) in the garden for three days, lOd." 



June 6th. — " Paid to Margaret Hall, cleansing the garden, 3d." 



