The P R E FA C E. 



leaft ever met with) which treated of it in 

 fuch a method and manner as may dired; 

 thofe that are beginning to learn, with fuc- 

 cefi. Befides, that of the Kitchen (as v/ell 

 as other parts of Gardening) has been fo 

 wonderfully improved Vv'ithin thefe few years^ 

 that were it poffible for any of thofe vete- 

 ran apron-men to tread this ftage of labour 

 and induftry again, they would find them- 

 felves at a great lofs how to proceed in 

 their art, as it is now manageci ; when the 

 winter, and almoft all times and {eafons of 

 the year, are furnifli'd with curiofities which 

 they thought could be had only in the 

 fummer, and more benign months of the 

 year. To this may be added likewife (or 

 which is indeed a part of what I have been 

 before obferving) the great improvement 

 made in hot-beds, and glaffes the forcing 

 vegetables in fijch a manner as to eat near as 

 well as when they come natural ; the great 

 variety there is of new-difcover'd plants 

 and feeds; and laft of aU, the great encou- 

 ragement given by the nobility and gentry 

 of thefe kingdoms, towards the accelerat- 

 ing of garden vegetables, put, I (ay, toge- 

 ther, change the very nature of the anci- 

 ent's pradice in the Olitory, and makes 

 it now the moft philofophical as well as 



a z moft 



