35 



The many editions that came out of Meager's English 

 Gardner, sufficiently shews the estimation in which his book 

 was held. 



GEORGE LONDON and HENRY WISE, so eminent in their 

 day, that, as a contemporary says, " If the stock of their 

 nurseries at Brompton Park, were valued at one penny a 

 plant, the amount would exceed <40,000. Mr. Evelyn de- 

 clares, that we may place the above nursery above the great- 

 est works of that kind ever seen or heard of, either in books 

 or travels." Mr. Evelyn again calls it " that vast ample 

 collection which I have lately seen, and well considered, at 

 Brompton Park ; the very sight of which alone, gives an idea 

 of something that is greater than I can well express. One 

 needs no more than to take a walk to Brompton Park, (on a 

 fair morning) to behold and admire what a magazine these 

 industrious men have provided." The Rev. John Laurence, 



must not do him the injustice of supposing he would have been a convert to 

 ^heir opinion : " Archibius is said to have written (or sent word most likely) 

 to Antiochus, king of Syria, that if you bury a speckled toad inclosed in an 

 earthen pot, in the middle of your garden, the same will be defended from 

 all hurtful weather and tempests." Meager, however, is kept in counte- 

 nance by Mr. Worlidge, who, in his chapter of Prognostics, at the end o* 

 his interesting Systems Agriculture, actually states that 



If dog's guts rumble and make a noise, it presageth rain or snow. 



The cat, by washing her face, and putting her foot over her ear, foreshews 

 rain. 



The squeaking and skipping up and down of mice and rats, portend 

 rain. 



Leonard Meager thus notices a nurseryman of his day : " Here follows 

 a catalogue of divers sorts of fruits, which I had of my very loving friend, 

 Captain Garrle, dwelling at the great nursery between Spittlefields and 

 Whitechapel; a very eminent and ingenious nurseryman." Perhaps this is 

 the same nurseryman that Rea, in his Pomona, mentions. He says (after 

 naming some excellent pear-trees) " they may be had out of the nurseries 

 about London, especially those of Mr. Daniel Stepping, and Mr. Leonard 



