156 
NATURAL HISTOUY OE SELBORNE. 
they call the month of February " sprout cale but long after their days 
the cultivation of gardens was little attended to,^" The religious, 
being men of leisure, and keeping up a constant correspondence with 
Italy, were the first people among us that had gardens and fruit-trees 
in any perfection within the wall of their abbies f and priories. The 
barons neglected every pursuit that did not lead to war or tend to the 
pleasure of the chase. 
It was not till gentlemen took up the study of horticulture themselves 
that the knowledge of gardening made such hasty advances. Lord 
Cobham, Lord Ila, and Mr. Waller, of Beaconsfield, were some of the first 
people of rank that promoted the elegant science of ornamenting with- 
out despising the superintendence of the kitchen quarters and fruit walls. 
A remark made by the excellent Mr. Ray, in his " Tour of Europe," 
at once surprises us, and corroborates what has been advanced above ; 
for we find him observing so late as his days, that, The Italians use 
several herbs for sallets, which are not yet, or have not been but lately, 
used in England, viz., selleri (celery), which is nothing else but the 
sweet smallage ; the young shoots whereof, with a little of the head of 
the root cut ofif, they eat raw with oil and pepper ; " and further adds : 
" curled endive blanched is much used beyond seas ; and, for a raw 
sallet, seemed to excel lettuce itself." Now this journey was under- 
taken no longer ago than in the year 1663. I am, &c. 
LETTES XXXVIII. 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne, Feh. Uth, 1778. 
" Fort^ puer, comitum seductus ab agmine fido, 
Dixerat, ecquis adest ? et, adest, responderat echo, 
Hie stupet ; utque aciem partes divisit in omnes ; 
Voce, veni, clamat magna. Vocat ilia vocantem." X 
Dear Sir, — In a district so diversified as thiS', so full of hollow vales 
and hanging woods, it is no wonder that echoes should abound. Many 
we have discovered that return the cry of a pack of dogs, the notes of 
a hunting-horn, a tunable ring of bells, or the melody of birds very 
agreeably ; but we were still at a loss for a polysyllabical articulate 
echo, till a young gentleman, who had parted from his company in a 
* As our Saxon ancestors called the month of February ' sprout-cale, ' so the 
names of many other months were equally significant : viz., March, Stormy 
Month ; May, Trimilki, the cows being milked three times a-day ; June, Dig-and- 
Weed Month; September, Barley Month," &c. — Mitford. 
t " In monasteries the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, however dimly. 
In them men of business were formed for the state : the art of writing was 
cultivated by the monks ; they were the only proficients in mechanics, gardening, 
and architecture." — Dai.rym.T'i.e'b Annals of Scotland. • 
X " Chance parts the youth from his companions dear, 
He cries " Who's here ? " and Echo answers " Here 
He stares around, and for a while stands dumb. 
Then shouts out, " Come," and Echo answers " Come." 
