ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
125 
spots in the country it may not be wondered at that some of 
them, perhaps many, should survive thereabouts down to our own 
times. And this is no doubt the origin of the similarity of the 
survivals at the different sites to which attention has been called. 
And yet at the great religious houses how few kinds of these 
plants manage to remain when the destruction of the monasteries 
and hermitages has been so complete. And why ? Because those 
who came afterwards found the well tilled sites so tempting to 
settle upon and to carry out the more modern forms of cultivation, 
that the gardens were naturally the first parts to feel the changed 
conditions, to be followed in so many instances by the destruction 
of all the building to supply stones for other dwelling houses. 
In this way all traces are lost of the gardens at Glastonbury ; 
at Wookey, where the Abbey of Wells is known to have had a 
flower garden ; at Gloucester, with its vineyards ; at Tintern, 
and at many others. Under such destruction and with such 
tempting soil it is only just a few plants that still remain about 
the ruins that can be reasonably thought to have their origin 
dating back to the cultivation of the monks. These few serve to 
show that the permanency of growth of mam^ more around fixed 
spots would have been maintained but for the interference of 
man over long periods, and a way to test it further is an 
examination around the abodes of hermits, where the ground 
has reverted to its wild state after the departure of the ancient 
occupants. In our own neighbourhood we have several sites 
occupied at one time by hermits, and these will serve the purpose 
of proof. 
If we examine the top of Brandon Hill, which was a heap of 
rocks until 100 years ago, or the sandstone cell between Redcliffe 
Church and the Harbour, it must be acknowledged we do not 
get any help, nor should we fairly expect any in the midst of a 
large city, although in the heart of Edinburgh plants of Lychnis 
viscaria have persisted in a wild state for many generations. If 
we look, however, at St. Vincent's Rocks or at the Steep Holm 
we find that they have received a different kind of treatment. 
History tells us that on the precipitous slopes of St. Vincent's 
Rocks a series of hermits had their dwelling place, and as all of 
them in England belonged to the Order of Austin Friars they 
lived on alms, and their only property was the cave or cell in 
which they dwelt. Small gardens would be, of course, attached 
for the supply of vegetables, and supplicants at the shrine, or 
passers-by provided the necessary bread. In those centuries the 
face of the cliff had not been quarried away, and there would 
have been a wide ledge outside the mouth of the cave with a path 
leading to the larger slope that stretched from the western end 
of the hill down to the river's bank below the present bridge, to 
the ferry that crossed thence to Somerset. Canon Rawnsley, 
who is so well known in Cumberland for his efforts to preserve 
