162 



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 prelate : the stem measures 

 thirty inches in girth. 



At Oxford, in the botanic garden of the 

 Regius Professor 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 pas- 

 sionately fond of this fruit; and seeing a 

 very fine fig on this tree that he wished to 

 preserve, wrote on a label, " Dr. Kenni- 

 cott's fig/* which he tied to the fruit. An 

 Oxonian wag, who had observed the trans- 

 action, watched the fruit daily, and when 

 ripe, gathered it, and exchanged the label for 

 one thus worded : " A fig for Dr. Kenni- 

 cott." 



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 ; as Tusser, who has furnished us with 

 a list of the fruits which were grown in Eng- 

 land in the succeeding reign, has not men- 

 tioned the fig-tree ; and Lord Chancellor 



