KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER JAMES I. 119 



but would tend to the reformation of disorders. 1 This admoni- 

 tion from the King, following the grant of his second charter, 

 did not have the desired effect, for the Gardeners were not 

 admitted by the Corporation until 1659. The arms are a 

 man digging, and the supporters two female figures with 

 cornucopia:,; the crest, a basket of fruit, and the motto, " In 

 the sweat of thy browes shalt thou eate thy bread." 2 These 

 arms were adopted by the Company in the time of James I., 

 but had never been registered until 1905, when they received 

 confirmation from King Edward VII. Although licensed by 

 the Charter to have a Hall in which to assemble, they never 

 appear to have possessed one, and their courts were for many 

 years held at Freemasons' Hall, and afterwards at Joiners' 

 Hall. No landed property is owned by the Gardeners, but 

 they formerly had a considerable mortgage interest in land at 

 Horselydown in Bermondsey, which, however, they parted 

 with in 1700. The Company has long ceased to exercise 

 many of its privileges, but it still flourishes, and ranks 

 sixty-sixth among the City Guilds. In 1903 an old chest 

 came to light in the Guildhall, containing a number of docu- 

 ments belonging to the Company, which supply some of the 

 links which were missing in its later history. The chain of 

 three hundred years' quiet business and work is now complete, 3 

 and the Gardeners with renewed vigour turn their attention 

 to more modern ways of encouraging profitable horticulture. 



All herbs already in cultivation were retained by J acobean gar- 

 deners, chiefly for their medicinal properties, which were in many 

 cases both varied and comprehensive. For instance, decoctions 

 of "Blessed Thistle," or Carduus benedictus, either the leaves 

 ground, or the juice drunk, or the leaves applied outwardly, 



1 Remembrancia, Guildhall. 



2 Arms. — On a shield representing a landscape the figure of a man 

 habited about the body with a skin, delving the ground with a spade, 

 all proper. Crest. — On a wreathe argent and vert, a basket of flowers 

 and fruit proper. Supporters. — On either side a female figure proper, 

 vested argent, wreathed about the temples with flowers, and supporting 

 on the exterior arm a cornucopia proper. Motto. — " In the sweat of 

 thy brows shalt thow eate thy bread." 



3 The Gardeners' Company : a Short Chronological History, 1605- 

 1907, with an Introduction by William Thomas Crosweller, Past Master. 

 London, privately printed, 1908. 



