286 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
f September 27, 1888. 
manifest that Holland has for some centuries had a great influence 
upon English horticulture, and will probably still affect it. The 
advertisements of the autumn season remind us of our indebted¬ 
ness to this country for many varieties of favourite bulbs. 
That to a limited extent, near London at least, fruit and vegetables 
were grown for the markets before the Tudors reigned appears from 
a side light we get from a quaint old ballad, which is undated, but be¬ 
longs to the commencement of the fifteenth century. Its author was 
a Benedictine monk, and a friend or admirer of Chaucer. He tells 
how in the City streets people urged him to buy “ Hot peascods,” 
Strawberries also, and “ Cherries on the ryse,” this meaning, perhaps, 
Cherries on the natural branches, or else tied to sticks. About the 
Peas, we must recollect that our ancestors then were not accustomed 
to shell them, hut boiled them in the pods, eating these whole as we 
do French Beans. Lydgate makes no mention of the vendors of 
Apples ; such there may have been, but the costard-monger is not 
named till the time of Ben Jonson. For a good while now this 
word has had a wider meaning than it had then : originally it 
applied to one who sold Apples, specially Costards, picked probably 
in his own orchard on the north of the City. There is also in the 
City records of the reign of Henry VI. a petition presented to the 
Mayor by some gardeners of nobles and citizens, who had for an 
uncertain period been accustomed to sell pulse, Cherries, and other 
garden produce belonging to their masters in front of the Church 
of St. Austin, Broad Street. They had been driven away by the 
ecclesiastics on the pretence that their conduct was noisy and dis¬ 
orderly ; after hearing both sides the Mayor thought he must 
appoint the gardeners another market, and he removed their stand 
to a place near the river at Blackfriars. About the same date, or 
earlier, we read of herb-wives, who brought for sale Basil, Saffron, 
Rosemary, and similar aromatics much in repute. In the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries, therefore, it seems many of the dwellers in 
London had gardens. The City guilds or companies had, most of 
them, halls surrounded by trees cr shrubs. Apples, and perhaps 
Cherries, grew in the heart of the metropolis, for St. Martin 
Pomary, a church in Ironmonger Lane, Cheapside, was so called 
from the Apple trees that grew around it in mediaeval times. Also 
some of the citizens who had a taste that way took plots a little 
distance from the boundaries, in what are now the unpromising 
localities of Spitalfields, Goodmans Fields, Whitechapel, and 
Shoreditch, where they grew more than they required for their own 
households, and sent the remainder into the public market, as we 
have seen. An ancient deed again indicates that a number of 
citizens, some 400 years ago, had ground near the City Road, their 
plots joining each other, and their occupations are stated. I find 
amongst them a large proportion of tailors or clothiers, which is a 
curious fact ; I do not think a love of gardening is common in men 
of that calling now-a-days, though I have noticed it in many shoe¬ 
makers. Part of this land cultivated by the citizens of walled 
London remained unbuilt upon until a date comparatively recent. 
We have referred to the fact that the Romans paid particular 
attention to the Vine, training it on trelliswork, up poles, possibly 
also allowing to run along the side of warm banks; and we may 
assume the cultivation of this plant has been continuous in Britain 
since their occupation. Domesday Book informs us that in the 
village of Westminster one Barnard held from the Abbot four 
arpents of vineyard, and at Kensington Aubrey de Vere did 
service for three arpents. (It is doubtful what extent of land 
this word represents.) Other early allusions to vineyards occur. 
There was one in the village of St. Giles ; another on the bank of 
the Old Bourne, in view of London city; yet we do not read of the 
street sale of Grapes. It is obvious neither Saxons nor Normans 
ate these to any extent; the Grape yield was utilised by being 
converted into wine. 
Pulse, mentioned above as an article sold by the City gardeners, 
would include Peas and Beans; but it was not until the Normans 
arrived that Peas were eaten green. The Saxons allowed the pods 
to ripen and stored them. Mr. Glasspoole points out that they 
were grown both in Scotland and England to some extent as early 
as 1299 ; for in that year an English force engaged upon a siege of 
a castle in Lothian had, from failure of their stock of provisions, 
to subsist for awhile upon the Peas and Beans they picked in the 
fields. Fosbrooke has also noted the fact that long before the 
Reformation the culture of the Pea was a specialty in some of 
the monastery gardens, and the monks used to compete with each 
other to produce Green Peas by an early date in Lent: how they 
forced the plants we do not know. Gerard, writing about the 
garden Bean, gave it as his opinion that it differed only through 
cultivation from a wild kind he found in many places ; perhaps, 
while seemingly wild, a descendant from the Bean which the 
Romans grew in Britain, for it was a vegetable they much favoured. 
Other varieties of the Pea and Bean were certainly brought to our 
island by returning Crusaders. Spinach is thought to have been 
an introduction due to some monk or pilgrim coming to us from 
Spain. For a long time its cultivation was very limited, but our 
forefathers are said to have used as a sort of Spinach, and even 
planted in their gardens, the wild species of Chenopodium called 1 
Bonus Benricus, also the Goosefoot, and named either after- 
Henry IV. of France or Henry VI. of England. The leaves- 
were boiled, and the stalks also scraped, peeled and eaten as 
Asparagus. It is not till the year 1502 that we get the first 
English work on horticulture by Richard Arnold, haberdasher, of 
St. Magnus, London. In this he discourses on grafting and plant¬ 
ing trees, intermingling remarks on the four seasons and astrology., 
—J. R. S. C. 
NOTES ON JUDGING. 
It is pretty well known among rosarians that to be a good judge & 
man must be either an exhibitor himself or else a zealous attendant at 
Rose shows, with frequent opportunity of seeing good Roses in a- 
growing state. It is astonishing how soon a man loses the “ eye for a. 
Rose” which will enable him to distinguish the different varieties apart 
as they appear in a stand. I have heard one who lives among the best 
of Roses all the year round say he cannot depend upon distinguishing 
all the sorts accurately at the beginning of a fresh season till his own 
Roses are out and his mind’s eye refreshed as it were by all their different 
peculiarities. Secretaries of Rose shows should remember this, and if a 
difficulty arises in finding judges well up to the task see if it be not 
possible to arrange that different sets of exhibitors should judge each, 
other, as this course generally produces complete satisfaction. 
In judging Roses the following points have to be taken into con¬ 
sideration Form or shape, colour, stability, freshness, size, and beauty 
of arrangement. Those of our lady friends who are ignorant of the; 
laws which govern the warriors of the Rose are always surprised in the- 
first place at the rigidity of the golden rule that puts form before 
colour, and next, that scent, which they rightly consider one of the 
glories of the Rose, should be so ignored. In answer to the first point 
the rosarian will remind his fair companion that a perfect knowledge off 
colour will not enable an artist to make even a presentable picture if 
his drawing be faulty. And if he wishes to air his classical lore he will' 
tell her that the ancient Romans (and she will probably concede that 
they knew something of art) had “ form ” or “ shape ” (forma) as their 
word for “ beauty,” and “ shapely ” (formosus) as their word for 
“ beautiful.” 
With regard to scent, he can only plead that in a tent containing- 
some thousands of blooms a man (with possibly in the past season a. 
baddish cold in the head) would find it a difficult task to judge Roses by 
their scent. But although it is well agreed that beauty of form should' 
be the first consideration, there is not, I fear, the same unanimity as to> 
the weight that should be given to the other points mentioned. On some- 
few occasions I have thought that even too much consideration has been 
given to form to the neglect of all other points whatever ; but as a rule- 
most judges would probably place them in much the same order as I 
have named them above. _ 
It goes without saying that at times there is such a discrepancy 
between the exhibits that a careful general survey of each will be 
sufficient. But, as a rule, every bloom should be separately noted, even 
in triplets. What I should call the rough-and-ready way is then some¬ 
times used. The jud^e runs rapidly over each stand, counting the 
number of “good” Roses in each, and gives his decision accordingly.. 
This seems to me a most unsatisfactory mode of procedure. In the same 
stand one bloom may be almost good and another very good, yet the- 
first counts nothing, and the other only one. In a close contest this 
might surely result in a miscarriage of justice. In all shows of horses, 
dogs, and poultry, judging by points has been the only safe rule, and it- 
should be the same with Roses. One bloom should be selected as the; 
standard of so many points, and every other Rose in each stand should' 
be awarded 0, 1, 2, 3, or even in the case of a medal bloom, 4 points. 
One of the judges should act as teller, and the others, one of whom 
should put down the figures, should watch and correct him if they 
differ from his estimate. It is best not to add up the totals till all the 
class has been once judged. Then, and not till then, in my judgment 
(others perhaps will differ) should beauty of arrangement, if necessary* 
come into consideration. _ 
Form, then, being the first consideration, the question at once 
arises, What is beauty of form ? Five different shapes or types of form 
are given and illustrated in the N.R.S. Catalogue — the cupped, the- 
imbricated, the globular, the globular high centre, and the fiat. Now, it 
seems to me that by rights two beautifully shaped Roses of any two of 
these five types should, eateris paribus, have an equal number of points. 
As a matter of fact, however, the flat type finds no favour, and probably 
few would wish to give it an equal position with the others. But I am 
inclined to think that the other four.at least should stand upon he 
