RURAL ENGLAND IN THE PAST 29 



to have had a like origin. As says the old 

 couplet, 



" Hops, Reformation, Bayes and Beere 

 Came into England, all in one yeare." 



In the end, England repaid the Flemish in some 

 degree for their good deeds by introducing the 

 potato into the Low Countries. Taking into ac- 

 count that of all culinary tubers and roots, the 

 potato is now the most indispensable to rich and 

 poor alike, and that it was certainly brought into 

 this country by Sir Walter Raleigh about 1585, it 

 is not a little remarkable, not only that the Flemish 

 themselves should have overlooked its good quali- 

 ties, but that nearly two hundred years should pass 

 by before it found general favour. Gerard men- 

 tions, with his wonted self-complacency, that he 

 grew potatoes in his own garden, where they suc- 

 ceeded as well as in their native Peru, but he 

 esteemed them as a delicacy only to be tasted on 

 rare occasions. Evelyn evidently thought but little 

 of them, for he writes: "Plant potatoes in your 

 worst ground. Take them up in November for 

 winter spending, there will enough remain for a 

 stock though ever so exactly gathered." The 

 gentry, in fact, did not take kindly to the potato, 

 and no wonder, when it was recommended in this 

 fashion: "The root is very near the nature of 

 the Jerusalem artichoke, although not so good 

 and wholesome, but that it may prove good for 

 swine!" 



Lancashire was the first English county where 

 it was both cultivated and properly cooked. By 



