152 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



supposed that it was not planted in England before the 

 reign of Henry the Eighth, when luxury and the arts 

 began to be encouraged, and noblemen's houses first put 

 on the air of Italian magnificence. There are, at the pre- 

 sent time, some fig-trees, of the white Marseilles kind, 

 growing in the garden of the Episcopal Palace at Lam- 

 beth, which are said to have been planted by Cardinal 

 Pole, who brought them from Italy during the reign of 

 Henry the Eighth. There is also a fig-tree of the white 

 sort at Mitcham, in the garden of the manor-house, 

 formerly the private estate of Archbishop Cranmer; and 

 it is confidently stated to have been planted by that pre- 

 late: the stem measures thirty inches in girth 



At Oxford, in the botanic garden of the Regius Pro- 

 fessor of Hebrew, is a fig-tree, which was brought from 

 the East and planted by Dr. Pocock, in the year 1648. 

 Of this tree the following anecdote is related : Dr. 

 Kennicott, the celebrated Hebrew scholar, and compiler 

 of the Polyglot Bible, was passionately fond of this fruit ; 

 and seeing a very fine fig on this tree that he wished to 

 preserve, wrote on a label, " Dr. Kennicott's fig/' which 

 he tied to the fruit. An Oxonian wag, who had observed 

 the transaction, watched the fruit daily, and when ripe, 

 gathered it, and exchanged the label for one thus worded : 

 " A fig for Dr. Kennicott." 



Dr. Turner has given us an ample account of the 

 virtues of figs in the second part of his Herbal, which he 

 dedicated to queen Elizabeth, and although he does not 

 actually write that it was then cultivated in England, yet 

 his saying " the figge-tree is so well knowen, that it 

 nedith no farther description," would induce us to think 

 that it was common in this country at that period. 



We may conclude that the fig-trees, which are stated to 

 have been planted in the time of Henry the Eighth, either 

 had not fruited, or were but little known at that period 5 



