REFERENCE BOOKS ON ENGLISH GARDENING LITERATURE. H7 



separately, directing what he is to do monthly throughout the 

 year. It is impossible to overrate the inspiriting influence 

 Evelyn exercised on the gardening and wood craft of his time. 

 His diary contains a good many references to the horticulture of 

 the period. 



16G0. Fuller, who wrote on Gardening in Surrey in 1660, 

 says : " Gardening was first brought into England for profit 

 about seventy years ago, before which we fetched most of our 

 cherries from Holland, apples from France, and had hardly a 

 mess of rath ripe peas but from Holland, which were dainties 

 for ladies — they came so far and cost so dear." He adds : 

 " Since gardening hath crept out of Holland (Flanders) to Sand- 

 wich, Kent, and thence to Surrey, where, though they have given 

 £6 an acre and upwards, they have made their rent, lived com- 

 fortably, and set many people on work." 



1665. The Eoyal Society was established, and in the earlier 

 volumes of the "Philosophical Transactions" (i.e. up to 1700) 

 there are valuable papers on horticultural affairs by Evelyn, 

 Cuningham, Merret, Petiver, Sir Hans Sloane, and many 

 others. 



1667. Abraham Cowley's poem on " The Garden " was 

 printed at the end of some other poems by Jeremiah Wells, and 

 it may be taken as an index of the interest attached to gardens 

 at the time. 



1669. John Worlidge published his " Systema Horticultural 

 or Art of Gardening. 



1670. Leonard Meager published several works, entitled 

 " The English Gardener," 1670 ; " The New Art of Gardening," 

 with " The Gardener's Almanack," 1697. 



1682. Samuel Gilbert sent out " The Florists' Vade Mecum," 

 which went through two other editions, and illustrate the then 

 growing taste for florists' flowers. Gilbert also wrote a " Gar- 

 dener's Almanack," in which he gives a full and accurate 

 description of the Garden Roses of the time, i.e. just before the 

 reign of Queen Anne. 



1699. We come to the reign of Queen Anne — the epoch of 

 straight lines, clipped trees, and elegant silver ware — and the 

 great nurserymen of the day were London and Wise, both pupils 

 of Mr. Rose, who was one of the most celebrated gardeners of his 

 time. Rose was gardener to the Earl of Essex, by whom he had 



