Window- Gardening. 7 9 



The love and extension of window-garden- 

 ing in London is illustrated by one of the 

 stories in Pasquirs Jests (1604). Some 

 merrymakers at a country inn, inquiring of 

 the landlady after the latest news, she tells 

 them of one of the greatest wonders that she 

 ever saw or heard of, and it was the work of 

 a stranger in London in respect to gardens 

 and the preservation of flowers ; and she 

 had seen it, she averred, with her own eyes ; 

 and it was the new art, which this person 

 taught the citizens, of taking in their gardens 

 every night at their windows, and letting 

 them out again in the morning. They agreed 

 to go up with mine hostess to judge for 

 themselves; and the tale proceeds to relate 

 that, after taking her friends through Cheap- 

 side, to the Exchange, Westminster, London 

 Bridge, the top of St. Paul's, and the Bear 

 Garden, their conductor eventually shewed 

 them, in a little lane, a widow putting out of a 

 garret-casement a box, in which she arranged 

 pots of gillyflowers, carnations, and herbs. 

 The point for us here is, of course, the casual 

 indication of what was a more or less general 



