96 



HISTORY OF GARDENING. 



Part I. 



The head gardcihcrs of this country are universally allowed to he the most intelligent and trust-worth v 

 part of the operatives of any branch of rural economv, and the most faithful and ingenious of those who 

 constitute the serving establishment of a country-residence. Those of Scotland are by many preferred, 

 chiefly, perhaps, from their having been better educated in their youth, and more accustomed 'to frugality 

 and labor. Scotland, Neill observes, " has long been famous for producing professional gardeners ; per- 

 haps more so than any other cour.try, unless we except Holland, about a century ago. At present, not 

 only Great Britain, but Poland and Russia are supplied from Scotland ; and the numbers of an inferior 

 class to be found in every part of England and Ireland, is quite astonishing." [Gen. Rep. Sec. chap, ii.) Lord 

 Gardenstone {Trav-lUng Memorandum, 1790) savs, that in evsrv country in Europe, he found gardeners 

 more sober, industrious, and intelligent than other men of a like condition in Society. 



446. The use of gardciis in Ireland is of a very limited, description, and the gardens 

 there, of all the classes, are greatly inferior to tlie corresponding classes in Britain. A 

 few exceptions may be made in favor of the Dublin botanic gardens, and those of one or 

 two wealthy citizens and extensive proprietors ; but the cottage-gardens, in many districts, 

 contain nothing besides potatoes ; and potatoes are the chief ingredients in the gardens 

 of private gentlemen. Parnel, Wakefield, and Curwen, have ably shown that till wheaten 

 bread and meat take place of these roots, no great improvement can be expected among 

 the lower classes of Ireland. 



447. Tkc artists or architects of gardens, in Britain, are of three classes. First, head 

 gardeners who liave laid out tlie whole, or part of a residence, under some professor, and 

 who commence artist or ground workmen, as this class is generally denominated, as a 

 source of independence. Such was Hitt, Brown, &c. Secondly, architects who have 

 devoted themselves chiefly to counti-j"-buildings, and thus acquiring seme knowledge of 

 country-matters, and the effects of scenery, combine with building, the laying out of 

 grounds, depending for the execution of their ideas on the practical knowledge of the 

 gardener, pro tempore. This class are commonly called gi-ound-architects. Such was 

 Kent. Thirdly, artists who have been educated and apprenticed, or otherwise brought 

 up entirely, or chiefly for that profession. These are often called landscape-gardeners, 

 but the term is obviously of too limited application, as it refers only to one branch of the 

 art. Such was Bridgeman, Eames, &c. 



Sect. VI. British Gardening, as a Science, and as to the Authors it has produced. 



448. Those superstitious observances attendant on a rude state of society, retained their 

 ground in British gardening till tlie end of the seventeenth century. Meager, Mascal, 

 Worlidge, and the authors who preceded them, regulate the perform.ance of horticultural 

 operations by the age of the moon. Turnips or onions, according to these authors, sown 

 when the moon is full, will not bulb but send up flower stalks ; and fruit-trees, planted 

 or grafted at that season, will have their period of bearing greatly retarded. A weak tree 

 is to be pruned in the increase, and a strong tree in the wane of the moon. Quintinye 

 seems to have been the first to oppose this doctrine in France, and through Evelyn's 

 translation of his Coinplete Gardener, he seems to have overturned it also in England. 

 " I solemnly declare," he says, " that after a diligent observation of the moon's changes 

 for tliirty years together, and an enquiry whether they had any influence in gardening, 

 the affirmative of which has been so long established among us, I perceived that it was 

 no weightier than old wives' tales, and that it had been advanced by unexperienced gar- 

 deners. I have, therefore, followed what appeared most reasonable, and rejected what 

 was otherwise ; in short, graft in what time of the moon you please, if your graft be good, 

 and grafted on a proper stock, provided ycu do it like an artist, you will be sure to suc- 

 ceed. In the same manner sow ^shat sorts of grain you please, and plant as you please, 

 in any quarter of the moon, I'll answer for your success, the first and last day of the 

 moon being equally favorable." 



(iiiintini'e not only removed ancient prejudices, but introduced more rational principles of pruning than 

 had before been offered. Sv^-itzer says, he first made it known that a transplanted tree could not grow till 

 it made fresh fibres, and that therefore the old ones:, when dried up, might be cut off 



449. The injluence of BacoJi s u^ritings produced the decline and fall of astrology, in 

 tlie beginning of the eighteenth century. A different mode of studying the sciences was 

 adopted. Vegetable physiology and chemistry, the first a new science, and the latter 

 degraded under tlie name of alchemy, began to be studied, and the influence of tliis 

 dawn of intellectual day Avas felt even in agriculture and gardening. 



450. The practice of forcing fruits and floivers, which became general about the middle 

 of the century, led gardeners to reflect on the science of their art, by bringing more 

 effectually into notice the specific influence of light, heat, air, water, and other agents of 

 vegetation. The elementary botanical vrorks published about the same time, by dif- 

 fusing the doctrines of Linnaeus, co-operated ; as did the various horticultural writers of 

 this century, especially Miller, Bradley, and Hill, and subsequently Home, Anderson, 

 and others. 



451. The increasiyig culture of exotics, Doctor Pulteney observes, " from the begin- 

 ning of the eighteenth century, and the greater diffusion of taste for the elegancies and 

 luxuries of the stove and green-house, naturally tended to raise up a spirit of improve- 



