A HISTORY OF 

 GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



CHAPTER I 



MONASTIC GARDENING 



" Forsitan, et pingues hortos quae cura oolendi 

 Ornaret, canerem, ..." 



Virgil ; Geor., iv. 118. 



THE history of the Gardens of England follows step by 

 step the history of the people. In times of peace and 

 plenty they increased and flourished, and during years of war 

 and disturbance they suffered. The various races that have 

 predominated and rulers that have governed this country 

 influenced the gardens in a marked degree. Therefore, in 

 tracing their history, the people whose national characteristics 

 or whose foreign alliances left a stamp upon the gardens they 

 made must not be lost sight of. 



Nothing worthy of the name of a garden existed in Britain 

 before the Roman Conquest. The Britons revered the oak, 

 and held the mistletoe sacred, and stained their bodies with 

 woad, 1 but of any efforts they may have made for the cultiva- 

 tion of these or any other plants nothing is known. The history 

 of Horticulture in this country cannot fairly be said to begin 

 before the coming of the Romans. In this, as in other sciences, 

 the Romans were so far advanced that it was centuries 

 before they were surpassed, or even equalled, by any other 

 nation. 



They cultivated most of the vegetables with which we are 

 still familiar. At Rome, said Pliny the Elder, " the garden 



1 Mr. Baker points out that woad is not wild in Britain. ,, . 



I 



