PREFACE. vii 



Horticultural Societies. I unwillingly relinquish this 

 latter work, being certain that I could by no means 

 do the subject justice. I have very slightly attempted 

 it in a little tract, published a few months, ago under 

 the title of On the Portraits of English Authors on 

 Gardening. Both these subjects must diffuse in the 

 mind of the composer nearly the same delight with 

 which Horace Walpole prepared the papers of Vertue; 

 which Dr. Pulteney no doubt experienced when 

 sketching the Progress of Botany ; which the Kev. 



orchardes, gardens, and groves of such varietie and delyght, that 

 whether you consider the goodnesse of soyle, the pleasauntnesse of 

 the seate, and other delycacies belonging to it, it is unparalleled by 

 any in these partes." 



' What information, on this head, might have been gleaned from 

 the late Sir W. Temple, or from Kent, or from even him who has 

 immortalised Kent, from Mr. Pope himself, whose chief delight was 

 in his own garden, or from Mr. Evelyn, Mr. Gray, Mr. Mason, or 

 from Mr. Bates, the celebrated and ancient horticulturist of High 

 Wycombe, who died there some few years ago, at the great age of 

 eighty-nine ! 



' This work might include many scattered and curious gleanings 

 from our old gardens. I will mention only one: "Talking of 

 hedges," says Mr. Cobbett, in one of Inis Rural Rides, " reminds me 

 of having seen a box-hedge just as I came out of Petworth, more 

 than twelve feet broad, and about fifteen feet high. I daresay it 

 is several centuries old. I think it is about forty yards long. It is 

 a great curiosity." In some of the villages near Northampton, are 



