THE CHARM OF GARDENS 



wife Eve, of the which he gat Seth ; of which tribe, 

 that is to say kindred, Jesu Christ was born." 



***** 



Here then is the legend of the first Garden in which 

 Adam delved, and lived by the sweat of his brow. 

 Again Sir John tells us of a place where he noticed the 

 trees, especially the Dry tree, and it can be seen how 

 much a lover of Gardens and of growing things he was, 

 and how he looked for and noticed these things and set 

 them down. 



This Dry Tree was an Oak of Abraham's time. 



OE THE DRY TREE 



" And there is a tree of Oak, that the Saracens clepe 

 Dirpe. that is of Abraham's time ; the which men clepe 

 the Dry tree. And they say that it hath been there 

 since the beginning of the world, and was some-time green 

 and bare leaves, until the time that our Lord died on the 

 Cross, and then it dried ; and so did all the trees that 

 were then in the world. And some say, by their pro- 

 phecies, that a lord, a prince of the west side of the 

 world, shall win the Land of Promission, that is the Holy 

 Land, with the help of Christian men, and he shall do 

 sing a mass under that Dry tree ; and then the tree shall 

 wax green, and bear both fruit and leaves, and through 

 that miracle many Saracens and Jews shall be turned to 

 Christian faith ; and, therefore, they do great worship 

 thereto, and keep it full busily. And, albeit so, that it 

 dry, natheles yet he beareth great virtue, for certainly he 

 hath a little thereof upon him, it healeth him of the fall- 

 ing evil, and his horse shall not be afoundered : and 

 many other virtues it hath ; wherefore men hold it full 

 precious." 



190 



