tion of gardens was little attended to. The religious, 

 being men of leisure, and keeping up a constant cor- 

 respondence with Italy, were the first people among 

 us that had gardens and fruit-trees in any perfection, 

 within the walls of their abbeys, priories, and monas- 

 teries, where the lamp of knowledge continued to 

 burn, however diml3\ In them men of business were 

 formed for the state ; the art of writing was culti- 

 vated by the monks ; they were the only proficients in 

 mechanics, gardening, and architecture. * The bar- 

 ons neglected every pursuit that did not lead to war 

 or tend to the pleasure of the chase. 



It was not till gentlemen took up the study of 

 horticulture themselves that the knowledge of gar- 

 dening made such hasty advances. Lord Cobham, 

 Lord Ila, and Mr. Waller of Beaconstield, were some 

 of the first people of rank that promoted the elegant 

 science of ornamenting without despising the super- 

 intendence of the kitchen quarters and fruit walls. 



A remark made by the excellent Mr. Ray in his 

 Tour of Europe at once surprises us, and corrobo- 

 rates what has been advanced above ; for we find 

 him observing, so late as his days, that '' the Italians 

 use several herbs for sallets, which are not yet or 

 have not been but lately used in England, viz. selleri 

 (celery), \vhich is nothing else but the sweet small- 

 age ; the young shoots whereof, with a little of the 



* Dalrymple's " Annals of Scotland." 



