78 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



abroad, but he delayed publication until the conclusion of his 

 wanderings. On his return to England he became chaplain and 

 physician to the Duke of Somerset, and it is generally believed 

 that he sat in the House of Commons. 1 He was promised the 

 prebend of Botevant in York, and in a letter written to thank 

 Cecil for the promise we find the remark, " My chylder have 

 bene fed so long with hope that they are very leane, i wold 

 fayne have the fatter if it were possible." 



Turner held this appointment for little more than two years, 

 and after failing to obtain either the provostship of Oriel College, 

 Oxford, or the presidency of Magdalen, he seems to have become 

 despondent. He wanted a house " where i may studie in and 

 have su place to lay my bookes in," and in another letter he 

 complains of " being pened up in a chamber with all my ho[use] 

 holde seruantes and children as shepe in a pyndfolde. . . . i 

 can not go to my booke for ye crying of childer and noyse yt is 

 made in my chamber." Finally he begged leave to go abroad, 

 " where I will also finishe my great herball and my bookes of 

 fishes, stones and metalles if God send me lyfe and helthe." 

 He was subsequently made Dean of Wells, but he lost this 

 office on the accession of Mary, and, like so many of the 

 Protestant divines, he went abroad. He stayed at Bonn, 

 Frankfort, Freiburg, Lauterburg [? Lauenburg], Mainz, Rode- 

 kirche, Strasburg, Speyer, Worms, Cologne and Weissenburg. 

 At Cologne and Weissenburg he had gardens, and it was from 

 Cologne that he published the second part of his Herbal. His 

 works were proclaimed heretical for the second time in 1555, 

 and the Wardens of every Company had to give notice of any 

 copy they had in order that they might be destroyed. It is 

 not surprising that Turner's works are rare ! 



On the accession of Elizabeth he returned to England and 



1 The Duke of Somerset was himself keenly interested in botanical investi- 

 gations, and Turner frequently refers to the Duke's garden. It was during 

 this time that Turner had his own garden at Kew. That he sat in the House 

 of Commons is generally supposed from a passage in his Spiritual Physik, 

 and this view is sustained by the character of the Hunter in his Romish Wolfe. 



