KITCHEN GARDENING UNDER JAMES I. 139 



is the " Orange Court," a long room with many large windows 

 where the trees were sheltered for the winter. 



This is one of the first instances of their importation, but 

 orange and lemon trees were great rarities in this country, 

 until many years later. Lord Carew, referred to in these 

 letters, is said to have had the first trees. On Sunday, 

 August 19th, 1604, James I. gave a banquet at Whitehall to 

 the Constable of Castile. " The first thing the King did was 

 to send the Constable a melon and half a dozen of oranges on 

 a very green branch, telling him that they were the fruit of 

 Spain transplanted to England. ..." " The Ambassador then 

 divided the melon with their Majesties." 1 



James I. made an attempt to promote mulberry-culture, with 

 a view to establishing a silk industry. He imported the trees 

 from France. They had been introduced from Italy into 

 Provence about a hundred years previously, and during the 

 reign of Henri IV. (1589-1610) into the Orleans district. King 

 James in November, 1609, sent a circular-letter to the Lords- 

 Lieutenant of all the counties of England, ordering them to 

 make public the announcement that in the March following 

 a thousand mulberry-trees would be delivered at each county 

 town, and all who were able were persuaded and required to 

 buy them, at the rate of three farthings the plant, or six 

 shillings the hundred. He also had a treatise on the cultivation 

 of mulberries published. The King set the example by having 

 four acres planted with mulberry-trees, near the palace of 

 Westminster. The large sum of £935 was the cost of walling 

 in the area, and levelling the ground and planting the trees. 2 

 Among the MSS. at Hatfield there is the draft dated 1606 of 

 a patent for the importation of mulberry-trees : the Patentee 

 was to bring in " only the white mulberry and such as shall 

 be plants of themselves, and not slips of others, and of one 

 year's growth." Each year he was to bring at least a million, 

 which he should cause to be planted and preserved, and he 

 was not to take above a penny for each plant. Cecil, in 

 furtherance of the King's scheme, himself brought five hundred 



1 Translation of a Spanish MS. in the British Museum, printed in 

 England as Seen by Foreigners, by Brenchley Rye. 



2 Issue Rolls, James I., by Devon. 



