P R E F A C E. 



vii 



I MUST lay it down as a principle, that fome fmali degree of 

 learning at leafh is neceffary to make a good gardener ; and what 

 fenfible man will beftow that on his fon, to qualify him for an 

 employment, that, to all appearance, and without fome uncom- 

 monly favourable circumftance, will never gain him more than 

 fifteen or twenty pounds a year ? or what boy of fpirit and ge- 

 nius will fludy a profeffion, from which he can only receive fo 

 poor a return ? It therefore appears to me very certain, that an 

 increafe of wages to thefe vifeful men, would, in a fhort time, 

 have mofl deiireable efFe(5ls, and that we Ihould then have at 

 command twenty intelligent gardeners, where we now perhaps 

 are at a lofs to find one ; nor is it to be doubted the mafter would 

 gain in greater proportion than the fervant. 



A GREAT manbeftows from fifty to a hundred pounds a year 

 . on a French cook ; for a Britifli gardener, feldom more than from 

 twenty to forty. I defpife all national refle(5lions, and efteem an 

 honeft Frenchman of any profelTion, but in a particular manner 

 a French cook ; yet I can by no means think him intitled to fo 

 great an advantage above the other. Every body knows the befi 

 cook cannot furnifh out a handfome table without the aiTiftance 

 of a good gardener; and perhaps there is as much judgment 

 required in raifing materials of the beft quality, as in dreiTmg 

 them well,. 



However, from what I have here faid, endeavouring to put 

 the gardener on the footing I think a good one deferves, I am, 

 as has been hinted, far from m.eaning to depreciate a good 

 French cook ; nor am I either clownifli or morofe enough, to 

 furmife, that a man of birth and opulence fliould deny himfelf 



