GARDENING UNDER WILLIAM AND MARY 211 



seen at Melbourne in Derbyshire. The gardens of Sir Richard 

 Child, at Wanstead in Essex, of Bushey Park, of Cranborne, 

 and of Castle Howard, were some of their other works ; at the 

 last-mentioned place Switzer says they reached " the highest 

 pitch that Natural and Pohte gardening can ever arrive to." 

 On the accession of Queen Anne, Wise was given the care of 

 the Royal Gardens, and London confined himself chiefly to 

 work in the country. He passed his time going a round of 

 great gardens, frequently, it is said, riding a distance of fifty 

 to sixty miles a day in the course of his business. 



Moses Cook, one of the original partners, published a work on 

 forest-trees, but London and Wise were the popular writers, as 

 well as designers, of the firm. They translated two works from 

 the French — The Complete Gardener, from Jean de la Quintinye 

 (first edition, 1699), and The Retired Gardener, from Louis Liger, 

 with The Solitary Gardener, from Le Gentil. They added 

 copious notes from their own experience ; the information is 

 all conveyed in the form of question and answer between a 

 gentleman about to purchase a seat in the country, and " taste 

 the Sweets of Country Life," and a gardener. The gentleman 

 asks such questions as, " Suppose I have some cases sent me 

 from abroad . . . when I receive them my ground is lock'd up 

 by a frost . . . what must I do with them ?" Gardener : " Upon 

 Receipt of your trees, which I suppose sent in cases with moss 

 laid round the roots . . . you must keep 'em in a cellar till your 

 ground is capable of receiving 'em. . . . Take your roots out 

 of the cases, and trim their roots. . , . After steep the roots 

 in water for a Day, and then set them. ... If you observe 

 this rule you won't lose one of your Trees, tho' they have 

 been out of the ground for three or four months together." 

 London and Wise's experience follows, and is rather contra- 

 dictory : " We had some peaches grafted on Almond's Stocks 

 from France, in 1698 . . . which were three months out of the 

 ground, notwithstanding all requisite care ... we could not 

 save ten trees out of the whole hundred." In another chapter 

 it is recommended, in sending layers and slips from abroad, 

 to rub them first with honey, and then cover in damp moss, 

 or stick them into " a piece of Potter's Earth tempered with 

 honey," and wrap round with moss. In this work the growing 



14 — 2 



