46 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



In fifteenth-century cookery-books recipes are found for 

 cabbages, both in " potage " or dressed with marrow, gruel, 

 and saffron. In the lists of great banquets which have been 

 preserved, such dressed vegetables rarely, if ever, occur. At 

 the third course of a banquet on the occasion of Henry IV.'s 

 marriage, '' pescodde " and " strawberry " were among the 

 dishes, but this is almost a solitary instance among bills of fare 

 of that date. 1 Cabbages were, from the earliest times, grown 

 in this country, but it may be some improved variety which 

 is referred to in the following passage : 2 " Sir Anthony Ashley, 

 of Wimborne St. Giles, Dorset, first planted cabbages in this 

 country, and a cabbage at his feet appears on his monument." 

 The tomb is to be seen in the church to this day, dated 1627. 3 



There was both a good variety and a fair supply of fruit in 

 the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Several new kinds of 

 apple and pear are mentioned by the poets of the day, and 

 must have been well known. Lydgate speaks of the Pome- 

 water, 4 Ricardon, Blaundrelle, and Queening apples. Gower 

 of another kind, the Bitter-sweet : 



" For all such time of love is lore 

 And like unto the bitter-swete 

 For though it think a man fyrst swete 

 He shall well felen at laste 

 That it is sower." 6 



Confessio Amantis. 



In the Miller's Tale, Chaucer incidentally alludes to the old 

 custom of storing apples : 



" Hire mouthe was swete as . . . 

 . . . hord of applies, laid in hay or hethe." 



^ 1 Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books, by T. Austin, E. E. Text Soc. 

 [.„ 2 Isaac D' Israeli, Curiosities of Literature. 



■ 3 A serious fire which took place in 1908 has, unfortunately, greatly 

 damaged the tomb and monument. The cabbage, being removable, 

 washable to be carried out of the burning church, and hopes are enter- 

 tained that the greater portion of the monument can be restored, and 

 the cabbage replaced as before. 



4 Shakespeare, Love's Labour's 1 Lost : " Ripe as a Pomewater, who 

 hangeth now like a jewel in the ear of cash — the sky, the Welkin, the 

 heaven." 



5 Romeo and Juliet : " Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting, it is a most 

 sharp sauce." 



