The Gardens at Sheen, etc. 61 



The Privy Purse Expenses of that prince 

 appear to contain only two direct references 

 to the king's garden at Sheen, the venerable 

 riverside manor-house, out of which gradually 

 developed itself the palace of our Tudor 

 princes. One is under February lyth, 

 1497-8, and is a grant of 2 to the gardener 

 for grafts. The second is of the 26th January, 

 1498-9, and registers a payment of los. for 

 " sope hashes," or the lees of soap, which were 

 found useful in killing slugs and other vermin. 



In the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry 

 VIII., under 1530, there is an item for 

 "weeding, delving, and ordering the royal 

 garden at Greenwich," and the amount, 

 ;i 4.?. 6d., must have been for a considerable 

 period. At the same time the price of herbs 

 might appear to have been high, as twenty 

 shillings were paid to the bringer of some 

 to the king; but the amount was given in 

 largess rather than as the commercial value 

 of the articles, in the same way as Henry 

 ordered 3*. 8^. to some countryfolk who had 

 presented him with wild strawberries, and as 

 elsewhere we meet with a record of a pottle 



