CHAPTER VII 

 KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER ELIZABETH AND JAMES I. 



" Whose golden gardens seeme th' Hesperides to mock, 

 Nor these the Damson wants nor daintie Abricock 

 Nor pippin, which we hold of kernel fruits the king, 

 The Apple-Orendge, then the sauory Russetting, 

 The Peare-maine which to France long ere to us was knowne, 

 Which carefull Frut'rers now haue denizend our owne 

 ****** 

 The sweeting, for whose sake the Plowboyes oft make warre, 

 The Wilding, Costard, then the wel-known Pomwater 

 And Sundry other fruits of good yet severall taste 

 That haue their sundry names in sundry counties plac't." 



Drayton : Polyolbion. 



THE changes in the kitchen, or " cooks-garden," 1 were not 

 so marked as in the garden " of pleasant flowers." 2 As 

 the flower-garden lay in front of the house, " in sight and full 

 prospect of all the chief and choicest roomes of the house ; 

 so contrariwise, your herbe garden should be on the one or 

 other side of the house ... for the many different sents that 

 arise from the herbes, as cabbages, onions, etc., are scarce well 

 pleasing to perfume the lodgings of any house." This is 

 certainly a change from the gardens of earlier times, when 

 herbs covered more or less the whole area of the average 

 garden, when groundsel was allowed a place with leeks, thyme, 

 and lettuce, and was classed among garden herbs indiscrimin- 

 ately with periwinkles, roses, and violets. 



Holinshed (died 1580), describing England in his day, points 

 out that the cultivation of vegetables was greatly increased, 

 and says that vegetables " have been very plentiful in this 



1 Letter from Peter Kemp to William Cecil, 1561. 2 Parkinson. 



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