MONASTIC GARDENING 
23 
At Hereford, 1 2 sloping to the south-west, is the spot known 
as the “ Vinefields,” where the terraces, laid out for the vines, 
can still be distinguished. The accounts of the Diocese of 
Hereford when the See was vacant by the death of Louis de 
Chorlton, in 1369, and the lands were in the hands of the King 
(Edward III.) until the next appointment, show the existence 
of a vineyard within the Manor of Ledesbury ; while in a similar 
account for the year 1536-7, 2 although the costs of the garden 
are entered, there is no mention of a vineyard ; and at another 
Manor on the same roll (Prestbury), the “ herbage of the pasture 
called Vyneyarde ” was sold, thus proving the former existence 
of vines on the spot, and showing how gradually they died out. 
But with our climate, what strikes one as more wonderful than 
their passing away is that they were, at one time, so numerous 
throughout England. Even as far north as Cheshire, in the 
twelfth century, although there does not appear to have been 
any actual vineyard, the vine was not unknown, for Reginald 
of Durham notices, at Lixtune in Cheshire, a little church 
built of timber with vines climbing over it. 3 
It is difficult to realize the appearance of Ely in the eleventh 
century, in the days “ when Cnut the King came sailing by,” as 
it rose from out the dreary and undrained fen-land. Then the 
sunny slopes around its cloisters were so thickly planted with 
vineyards, tended by those monks who sang so merrily, that the 
Normans gave it the name of the “ Isle des Vignes.” 
Another old rhyme thus celebrates these vines : 
“ Quatuor sunt Eliae : Lanterna, Capella Mariae, 
Et Molendinum, nec non claus Vinea vinum.” 
“ Englished ” thus by Austin, in 1653 : 
“ Foure things of Elie towne, much spoken are. 
The Leaden Lanthorn, Marie’s chappell rare, 
The mighty Milhill in the Minster field, 
And fruitful vineyards which sweet wine do yeeld.” 4 
1 Ministers’ Accounts, B. 1138, No. 4. Bishops’ Temporalities, 
Hereford Diocese (Record Office). 
2 Exchequer Q. R., Hereford Diocese, No. 133 (R.O.). 
3 Regin. Dunelm de B. Cuthberti virtutibus, Surtees Soc., 1835, P- 3 ° 7 * 
4 Ralph Austin, A Treatise on Fruit Trees , 1653. 
