8 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



ever grew on British soil. Another, earlier still, 

 that an illustrious Abbe de Fecamp in the days 

 of the Norman kings, who was some while domi- 

 ciled at Sompting in the same locality a village 

 still bearing the name of Sompting Abbots was 

 the originator of Sussex fig culture. At this dis- 

 tance of time, the question of priority can scarcely 

 be settled beyond dispute; but we may not be 

 far wrong in giving some credence to the Roman 

 theory. Survivals as remarkable are not unknown 

 in the annals of horticulture. 



There is, however, no doubt at all about the 

 introduction of the vine. It is well authenticated 

 that in the third century Britain was one of the 

 Roman colonies in which the privilege of vine- 

 growing, not by any means granted to all her 

 provinces, was permitted by edict. England, it 

 is true, is no longer a wine-making country, though 

 one vineyard, belonging to the Marquis of Bute, 

 still exists near Cardiff which produces excellent 

 claret ; but for hundreds of years there were vine- 

 yards in many parts of the kingdom. The memory 

 of these, if not the reality, still lingers in the 

 names of plots of ground in Surrey and Kent 

 and Devon, and as far north as Staffordshire ; and 

 it is even stated that as late as 1763 there were 

 sixty pipes of home-grown Burgundy in the cellars 

 of Arundel Castle. 



Thus the elm-tree and the chestnut, the fig-tree 

 and the vine, may not unreasonably carry our 

 thoughts back to the days when Rome set her 

 indelible stamp upon Britain. 



To turn to a less remote source, we must look 



