42 
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
“ Two loves of benes and bran 
Y baked for my children.” 1 
In picturing the utter destitution of the patient Griseldis, 
Chaucer lays stress on the fact that she was dependent on 
vegetables for food, and being without a garden, had resort to 
the wayside herbs : 
“ Whan she homward cam she wolde bringe 
Wortes or othere herbes tyme ofte 
The which she shredde and seeth for her livinge.” 2 
At the beginning of this period there was great distress, as the 
country was swept by a scourge worse than war, the fearful 
plague known as the Black Death. As if to add to the horrors 
of the time, and the sufferings of the survivors, there were bad 
seasons, and many crops failed. Even what harvest there was 
could not be gathered, labourers were so scarce. Doubtless 
many orchards and gardens suffered much from the neglect of 
those years. But in spite of this, they were increasing, and 
by the end of the fourteenth century every small manor and 
farm could boast of a garden. For “ that londe bereth fruyt 
& corn good ynoughe, that londe is well at ease as longe as 
men lyue in peas .” 3 This was certainly true, for while men 
lived in comparative peace, there was a revival in gardening 
and husbandry. This progress was again checked by the 
Wars of the Roses, and the next step in advance did not come 
till the restoration of peace in Tudor times. 
In the Middle Ages, what would now be called the kitchen 
garden was in most cases the only one attached to a house. 
The idea of a garden solely for beauty and pleasure was quite 
a secondary consideration. In early cookery-books, various 
recipes for serving up vegetables are given, though only a few 
of these dishes are vegetables cooked alone. But the wealthy, 
who could afford to get all the ingredients of these many 
recipes, had so much meat, and such an immense variety of 
game—cranes, herons, curlews, and other birds, besides those 
still in use—that they did not care for vegetables served 
1 Piers Plowman. 2 Clerk's Tale. 
3 Trevisa, description of Britain in his translation of Higden’s Poly- 
chronicon, cir. 1387 (printed by Caxton, 1482). 
