64 Gleanings in Old Garden Literature. 



papers on the subject of horticulture in the 

 seventh and twelfth volumes of Arch&ologia. 

 To the latter I shall have to recur ere long. 



The reader of Macaulay's essays will call 

 to mind his account of Sir William Temple 

 and the delight which the latter took in his 

 garden at Sheen. This was the site of the 

 ancient priory, and here, during many years, 

 Temple amused his leisure in horticultural 

 experiments, and had for his amanuensis no 

 less a person than Jonathan Swift. Lysons 

 says : 



"King William, who had known Sir William 

 Temple on the Continent, and had a great esteem for 

 his talents and character, frequently visited him at 

 this place and pressed him to become his Secretary of 

 State. When his patron was lame with the gout, 

 Swift usually attended his Majesty in his walks round 

 the garden. The king is said on one of these occa- 

 sions to have offered to make him a captain of horse, 

 and to have taught him to cut asparagus in the Dutch 

 manner." 



In 1667, it is to be gathered from his 

 correspondence that Temple was paying 

 special attention to the culture of cherries, 



