240 NATURAL HIS20RY 



despised for their sordid parsimony, and looked upon ag 

 regardless of the welfare of their dependents. Potatoes 

 have prevailed in this little district, by means of premiums, 

 within these twenty years only ; and are much esteemed 

 here now by the poor, who would scarce have ventured to 

 taste them in the last reign. 



Our Saxon ancestors certainly had some sort of cabbage, 

 because they call the month of February sproutcale; 1 but 

 long after their days, the cultivation of gardens was little 

 attended to. The religious, being men of leisure, and keep- 

 ing up a constant correspondence with Italy, were the first 

 people among us that had gardens and fruit-trees in any 

 perfection within the walls of their abbeys and priories. 2 

 The barons 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 horticul- 

 ture themselves that the knowledge of gardening made such 

 hasty advances. Lord Cobham, Lord Ila, and Mr. Waller 

 of Beaconsfield, were some of the first people of rank that 

 promoted the elegant science of ornamenting, without de- 

 spising, the superintendence 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 corroborates 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 Eng- 

 land, viz. selleri (celery), which is nothing else but the 

 sweet smallage ; the young shoots whereof, with a little of 

 the head of the root cut off, they eat raw with oil and 



1 The Saxon names of many other months were equally significant ; 

 e.g. March, stormy month; May, Thrimilchi, the cows then being 

 milked three times a day ; June, dig and weed month ; September, bar- 

 ley month, &c. ED. 



2 " In monasteries, the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, however 

 dimly. In them, men of business were formed for the state : the art 

 of writing was cultivated by the monks ; they were the only proficients 

 in mechanics, gardening, and architecture." See Dalrymple's " Annals 

 of Scotland." G. W. 



