CHAPTER XIII 



THE GARDEN OF HERBS 



" GARDENING is of few years' standing in England, 

 and therefore not deeply rooted nor well under- 

 stood. About fifty years ago, about which time 

 Ingenuities began to flourish . . . this Art of 

 Gardening began to creep into England, into Sand- 

 wich and Surrey, Fulham and other places. Some 

 old men in Surrey, where it flourisheth very much 

 at present, report; That they knew the first gar- 

 diners that came into those parts to plant Cabages, 

 Colleflowers, and to sow Turneps, Garrets, and 

 Parsnips, to sow Raith (or early ripe) Peas, Rape, 

 all which at that time were great rarities, we having 

 few or none in England but what came from Hol- 

 land and Flanders." This was written in 1651, 

 when the lost art had once more come to life ; and 

 to hap upon a passage like this, quoted with all 

 its quaint spelling, from an old author, sets one 

 thinking, with a grateful heart, of present-day 

 blessings. 



A chronicle of English gardening would be want- 

 ing indeed without some allusion to one of its 

 most important aspects, the culture of vegetables; 

 but it is with its private rather than with its public 

 phase that we are here concerned. 



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