MONASTIC GARDENING 21 



time, so great was the demand for this fruit. Perhaps it was 

 the too frequent use of it that suggested to Necham the advisa- 

 bility of warning his readers that " cherries, mulberries, and 

 grapes should be eaten fasting, and not after a meal." 1 



The third department, of the " Garden Warder," must now 

 be considered. It has been already pointed out that vines were 

 grown by the Romans in Britain, and, with the exception of the 

 gap immediately following Roman rule, their history is con- 

 tinuous. Tradition points to a place called Vine, in Hamp- 

 shire, as having taken its name from the vines planted there 

 during the time of the Emperor Probus. Vines, the " Wines- 

 treow," are noticed as boundaries or landmarks at several places 

 in Saxon charters of the tenth century, and these might have 

 been survivals of Roman vineyards. 2 



Bede, writing early in the eighth century, says that Britain 

 " excels for grain and trees ... it also produces vines in some 

 places." 3 In the laws of Alfred, 4 which were chiefly compila- 

 tions of existing ones, it was notified that anyone who 

 " damaged the vineyard or field of another should give com- 

 pensation." In the tenth century King Edwy confirmed the 

 grant of a vineyard at Pathenesburgh, in Somerset, to the 

 Abbey of Glastonbury. The grapes were gathered in October, 

 and that month was called " Winter filling moneth," or " Wyn 

 moneth," another proof of the extent to which vines were 

 cultivated. The pruning of the vine took place in February. 

 The picture of vine-pruners taken from an Anglo-Saxon MS. 

 in the British Museum illustrates that month in the calendar. 



Necham devotes a chapter of his De Naturis Rerum to the 

 vine, but he chiefly moralizes, and does not treat his subject in 

 its practical sense. He records that in gathering grapes, having 

 reached the final row, the workers in the vineyard break into a 

 song of rejoicing, but, unfortunately, he does not satisfy a 

 natural curiosity by handing down the words of their chant. 



1 Necham, De Naturis Rerum. 



2 Kemble's Codex Diplomalicus, vol. v. 



MCXLVI. Eadmund, 943. Lechamstide. 

 MCLXXVII. Ealdred, 949. Boxoram. 

 MCXCVIII. Eadwig, 956. Welligforda, &c. 



3 Bede, Hist. Eccle. gentis Anglorum, ed. 1848, p. 108. 

 1 LL. Saxon., Wilkins, p. 31. LL. Aelf., 26. 



