CHAP. ir. 



BRITISH ISLANDS. 



S3 



of orchards; but nothing has reached us respecting the barren 

 trees and ornamental shrubs of that period, either in France or 

 England. 



In the tenth centur}?-, monasteries and other religious esta- 

 blishments began to abound in the country ; and the monks and 

 clergy, who were their principal occupants, were generally either 

 natives of foreign countries, or had been educated in Italy. The 

 occupants of monasteries have, in all times, been attached to 

 gardening; and, among the plants which those of Britain pro- 

 bably introduced from Italy, there can be little doubt that fruit 

 trees were included, and probably, also, some trees of ornament, 

 and shrubs. The sweet bay and the arbutus, if they were not 

 introduced by the Romans, were, in all probability, brought 

 over by the monks. It is conjectured by Dr. Walker [Essays 

 on Nat. Hist.)) that some trees and shrubs were introduced from 

 the Holy Land during the time of the crusades ;: and one of 

 these, he thinks, was the English elm. In the dispute already 

 noticed (p. 23.), between Daines Barrington and Dr. Ducarel, 

 on the question of the sweet chestnut being indigenous, the 

 latter refers to a record, dated in the time of Henry II., by 

 which the Earl of Hereford grants to Flexby Abbey the tithe 

 of all his chestnuts in the Forest of Dean. It appears highly 

 probable that the chestnut, being so productive of human food 

 in Italy in the time of the Romans, would be introduced by 

 them, wherever they went, as one of the most useful of trees. 



In the beginning of the 13th century, the apple appears to 

 have been cultivated to some extent in Norfolk. Ini the 6th of 

 King John (1205), Robert de Evermere was found to hold his 

 lordship of Redham and Stokesly, in Norfolk, by petty serjeantry, 

 the paying of 200 pearmains, and 4 hogsheads (modios) of wine 

 made of pearmains, into the exchequer, at the feast of St. 

 Michael yearly. {Blomfeld's NorfolJc, ii. 242. 4to edit., 1810.) 



At the beginning of the 15th century, the rose appears to 

 have been not only known, but in extensive cultivation. Sir 

 William Clopton granted to Thomas Smyth a piece of ground 

 called Dokmedwein Haustede, for the annual payment of a rose, 

 at the nativity of St. John the Baptist, to Sir William and his 

 heirs, in lieu of all services, dated at Haustede, on Sunday next 

 before the Feast of All Saints, 3 Henry IV. (1402). {Cullum's 

 Hawsted) p. 117.) 



In explanation of this deed, it may first be observed that 

 ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, being executed in 

 churches or churchyards, for the greater notoriety: in the 

 second place, the rose was then in much more extensive use in 

 cultivated society than it is now, when its place is partly occu- 

 pied by the great variety of other flowers now in cultivation. 

 The demand for roses formerly was so great, that bushels of 



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