Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
Another mediaeval royalty who was fond of gardening was, 
it is said, Charlemagne, who liked visiting the Abbey of 
St. Gall, on Lake Constance, and gardening with the 
monks. The plan of this Abbey, dating from the ninth 
century, is still to be seen, showing the different gardens. 
Oddly enough, this plan of separate flower and vegetable 
gardens seems to be favoured in Virginia at the present 
day, where the kitchen-gardener apparently does not care 
to work among the flowers. There is a tradition, I 
believe, noted by Camden, that in the neighbourhood of 
the Piets Wall the Roman soldiers quartered on the Border 
introduced plants good for healing wounds. In this 
category surely the Soldier’s Herb, or Sideritus (Ironwort), 
should be included, for herbalist lore declares that “ it did 
cure Wounds made with the Sword or with Iron,” and, 
indeed, seems to have been a thing no surgeon should ever 
be without. 
The monks of the Middle Ages were practically the only 
chirurgeons, and this is why the herbs were generally to be 
found under the shadow of monastic walls, though some- 
times in secular precincts. Brithnod, Abbot of Ely in 
1107, took great interest in plants and trees, so did 
Erasmus and Luther. Abbot Neckam (1213) foster- 
brother of Richard Coeur de Lion, was also noted for his 
interest in gardenage, and has left a list of the things he 
considered should be in every good garden, quoting 
particularly a long list of “ pottageherbs ” and Roses, Lilies, 
and Peonies. But since it is much the same as the Saxon 
conventual list I will not note further. 
The purple spires of Honesty form the principal beauty 
of the garden borders just now. Such a number of quaint 
names this plant has — Satin Violet and Sattin-flower, 
names it bore in Gerarde’s time; Lunary, Moon wort, Penny- 
flower ; while the French call it Lunaire and Medaille du 
Pape. There is a white kind not so pretty as the purple, 
which is certainly handsome if a trifle coarse, like the beauty 
of a storm-tanned gipsy ; but it is not to be despised, this 
backward season especially. There is a delightful old saying 
142 
