138 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



our cold Clymate. Quaere, if these walls did stand so con- 

 veniently, as they might also be continually warmed with 

 kitchen fires ; as serving for Backs unto your chimneys, if so 

 they should not likewise finde some little furtherance in their 

 ripening." 



The experiment of growing lemons was tried by Lord 

 Burghley. There are some interesting letters extant in which 

 the history of the way in which the tree was procured is pre- 

 served. Cecil wrote to Thomas Windebank, who was then in 

 Paris, March 24th and 25th, 1651-62, saying he had heard from 

 his son Thomas, that Mr. Carew was going to have certain trees 

 sent home, and " I have already an orange tree ; and if the 

 prise be not much, I pray you procure for me a lemon, a pome- 

 granate, and a myrt tree ; and help that they may be sent 

 home to London with Mr. Caroo's trees ; and beforehand send 

 me in writing a perfect declaration how they ought to be used, 

 kept and ordered." The answer to this letter is dated April 8th, 

 1562, from Paris : " Sir, According to your commandment 

 I have sent unto you by Mr. Caroo's man, with his master's 

 trees, a lemon tree and two myrte trees, in two pots, which 

 cost me both a crown, and the lemon tree 15 crowns, wherein, 

 Sir, if I have more than perhaps you will at the first like, yet 

 it is the best cheap that we could get it, and better cheap than 

 other noble men in France have bought of the same man, 

 having paid for six trees 120 crowns. . . . Well I think this 

 good may ensue by your buying it, that if the tree prosper 

 . . . you will not think your money lost. If it do not prosper, 

 it shall take away your desire of losing any more money in 

 like sort. My Lord Ambassador and Mr. Caroo were the 

 choosers of it." He then gives directions for the " ordering " 

 of the trees, Which were to stand out in some sheltered place 

 during the summer, and be lifted into the house for the cold 

 months from September until April. If the tubs were filled 

 up with earth, the plants could remain in them " this two or 

 three year, so heed be taken that the hoops fall not away and 

 that the earth shed not." The lemon " hath been twice grafted, 

 and is of four years' growth, and this year he would look for 

 some fruit." How these particular trees flourished history 

 does not relate, but one of the older parts of Burghley House 



