92 



HISTORY OF GARDENING. 



SuBSECT. 3. Gardening in Ireland, in respect to its horticidtural Productions. 



417. As far as respects hardy fruits and culinary vegetables, the gardens of the prin- 

 cipal proprietors in Ireland may be considered as approaching to those of Scotland or Eng- 

 land, as they are generally managed by gardeners of these countries ; but, in respect to 

 exotic productions, Irish gardens are far behind those of the sister kingdoms. Indeed, it 

 is only within the last fifteen years that it has become the practice to build hot-houses of 

 any description in that country ; and the number of these is still very limited. The first 

 forcing-house was erected in the Blessington gardens. The gardens of the minor nobi- 

 lity and gentry of Ireland are poor in horticultural productions ; many content them- 

 selves with cabbages and potatoes, and perhaps a few pears, onions, and apples. 



Sect. IV. British Gardening, in respect to the planting of Timber-trees arid Hedges. 



418. The British Isles irere ivell stocked nith timber when comparatively unpeopled with 

 men. As population increased, culture extended itself, and forests were encroached on or 

 eradicated, to make room for the plough or the scythe. History, as far as it goes, bears 

 witness to this state of things in England, Scotland, and Ireland. 



SuBSECT. 1. Gardening in England, in respect to the 2)lanting of Timber-trees and 



Hedges. 



419. The ivoods of England were so numerous and extensive when Domesday-book 

 was compiled, as to be valued, not by the quantity of timber, but by the number of 

 swine which the acorns and mast could maintain. Four hundred years after this, in the 

 time of Edward IV., an eminent writer says, that England was then a well timbered 

 country. 



-''420. Till the beginning of the seventeenth century, the subject of planting for timber and 

 fuel, seems not to have attracted much attention as an important part of the rural eco- 

 nomy of England. Sir John Norden, in his Surveyor s Dialogue, published in 1607, 

 notices the subject; as had been done before by Benose, in 1538, and Iltzherbert, in 1539. 

 In 1612 was published. Of planting and preserving f T'imber and Fuel, an old Thrift 

 newly revived, by R. C. ; and in the following year. Directions for planting of Timber 

 and Fire IVood, by Arthur Standish. Planting for timber and copse is noticed in 

 Googe\ Husbandry, published in 1614, and is the express subject of Manwood's Treatise 

 on Forests, and their Origin(d and Beginni/ig, published in 1615 ; and of Rathbone's Sur^ 

 veyor, in 1616. It is singular that so many books on this subject should have been pub- 

 lished so near together at so early a period. The reason seems to be, as professor Mar- 

 tyn has observed, that a material attack was made on the forest-trees in the 27th year of 

 the reign of Henry VIII., when that monarch seized on the church- lands ; and from 

 this time the consumption of oak- timber was continually increasing, not only in conse- 

 quence of the extension of commerce, and of great additions to the royal navy, but be- 

 cause it was made more use of in building houses. This alarmed both government and 

 individuals. Holinshead, who lived in the reign of Elizabeth, says, that in times past 

 men were contented to live in houses built of sallow, willow, &c. ; so that the use of oak 

 was, in a manner, dedicated wholly unto churches, religious houses, princes' palaces, 

 navigation, &c. ; but now nothing but oak is any where regarded. 



In the reign of James I., it appears that there was great store of timber, more than proportioned to the 

 demand. For on a survey of the royal forests, &c. in 1608, we find that a great part of what was then in- 

 tended to be sold, remained a considerable time undisposed of 



During the civil vjar, in the time of Charles I., and all the time of the interregnum, the royal forests, as 

 well as the woods of the nobility and gentry, suffered so much, that many extensive forests had, in a few 

 years, hardly any memorial left of their existence but their names. This Wss would not have operated so 

 severely, had the principal nobility and gentry been as solicitous to plant with judgment, as to cut down 

 their woods. 



The publication of Evelyn'' s Sylva, in 1664, raised a great spirit of planting, and created a ncv/ jcra in this 

 as in other branches of gardening. In his dedication to Charles II., in 1678, he observes, that he need not 

 acquaint the king how many millions of timber-trees have been planted in his dominions, at the instiga- 

 tion, and by the sole direction of that work. The government at that time, alarmed by the devastation 

 which had been committed during the civil v/ar, gave great attention to thejncrease and preservation of 

 timber in the royal forests. 



421. Tree-mirseries were established during the seventeenth century. Young trees, the 

 early authors inform us, were procured from the natural forests and copses, where they 

 were self-sown ; but about the beginning of the seventeenth century, public nursery- 

 gardens were formed, originally for fruit-trees ; but towards the end, nurserymen, as we 

 learn from Switzer and Cooke, began to raise forest-trees and hedge-plants from seeds. 

 The first nursery we hear of was that of Corbett, at Twickenham, mentioned by Ben 

 Jonson, and the next of consequence that of London and Wise, at Brompton Park, 

 already mentioned, and still continued as a nursery. 



422. During the eighteenth century, especially in the latter part, planting proceeded 

 rapidly. The Society of Arts, &c. established in 1753, have greatly contributed, by 

 their honorary and pecuniary rewards, to restore the spirit for planting. The republi- 

 cation of Evelyn's Sylva^ in a splendid manner, by Dr. Hunter, and subsequently c-i 



