140 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



trees from France in 1608, but it is not known where they were 

 planted. In the Exchequer Rolls of 1608, it appears that 

 £100 was paid for trees and plants for silkworms, and in 1618 

 " £50 to the keeper of the gardens at Theobalds for making 

 a place for the King's silkworms and providing mulberry 

 leaves," The solitary mulberry-treefe, so often to be seen in 

 gardens in many parts of England, were probably planted 

 when this effort was made to bring them into notice. But 

 a few trees, still in existence, are even older. Coles, writing 

 in 1657, says : " The biggest tree that ever I saw groweth in 

 New College in Oxon in a place between the great quadrangle 

 and the garden."^ The four trees in the West garden at Hatfield 

 were, according to tradition, planted by Queen Eliazbeth ; 

 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 J uncus) on 

 the floor was very general in the Middle Ages. Frequent 

 notes of payment for rushes occur in the royal accounts, such 

 as in loth of Henry HI., 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, 

 1551-52, 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."^ 



* Adam in Eden, by William Coles, 1657. * Towneley Mysteries. 



