MONASTIC GARDENING 
27 
sold in one year (1295-6). 1 A little farther on, in Smithfield, 
a vineyard was planted by Geoffrey, Earl of Essex, on the 
land belonging to the “ Canons of Trinity Church, London/' 
which was restored to that body in 1137. 2 
It would be tedious to enumerate all the vineyards belonging 
to monastic houses which are known to have existed, and of 
which there is merely the name or some slight record surviving, 
as at Canterbury, Beaulieu, Ramsey, Abingdon, Spalding, Bury 
St. Edmunds, and many others. 3 Enough has been told to 
show how important an item the vineyard was in the gardener's 
department. His cares, however, did not quite end there, as 
the moat and the ponds were also under his charge. At 
Norwich the gardener’s office bore the expense of cleaning the 
ditches which divided the various gardens, the Prior’s from 
the chief garden, and so on. 4 At Abingdon also he defrayed 
the cost of cleaning out the moat, and both there and at 
Ramsey the gardener purchased nets and baskets for catching 
the fish in the moats and ponds. 5 
To get at the details of the management of monastic gardens, 
we have to go so constantly to the accounts of the office, and 
to look so entirely at the business side of the question, that one 
is apt to forget the other aspect—namely, the pleasure they 
1 Duchy of Lancaster Account, Bundle 1, No. 1. 
2 “To the Canons of the Holy Trinity, London, for the soul of K. 
Henry, and for his own welfare and that of Matilda the Queen his 
consort, and of Eustace his son and his other children, the land of 
Smethefelde which Earl Geoffrey had taken for making his vineyard, 
to hold the said land as K. Henry granted it to them. Witness, 
M[atilda] the Queen ” (Charter, Roll 3, Richard II., m. 3, Ancient 
Deeds Record Office, A6683). 
Syllabus of Rymer’s Feeder a, vol. i., p. 3. 
3 The total cost of the vintage one year at Abingdon was 4s. 4d. In 
1388-9 the profits from the vineyard were : “ from wine, 13s. 4d., from 
grapes, 20s. ojd., from verjuice, 2s., from vines, 4d.” (Accounts of 
Abingdon Abbey , by R. E. G. Kirk). 
4 1483-4. “For cleaning the great ditch that goes round the garden 
with the small ditch which is next the ‘ scaccarium * ( —exchequer) of the 
gardener, i8d.” (There is an entry, 1516, “ for making a window of 
glass in the * scaccarium/ 2od/’) 
5 Abingdon, 1450-1 : “Et in welez emptis pro piscibus capiendis in 
fossato conventus 4s. rod. et in factura unius tronke pro piscibus custo- 
diendis 3d/’ 
