14 
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
Some items occur without variation every year, such as the 
payments to the servants, and their tunics, boots, and gloves. 
The gloves are not uncommon entries ; they appear among the 
accounts of Bicester, 1 Bury, Holy Island, and other places. 
They were probably thick gloves for weeding. 
The O of the gardener is also of regular occurrence, as it was 
expenses'^ a yearly feast, and the O refers to the antiphon 
sung on the occasion by the Hortulanus, commencing “ O 
Radix Jesse.” In the Abingdon Accounts it is entered, “ To 
O Radix, 6s. iod.,” and another time (a.d. 1388) still more at 
length, “ In expensis factis pro mittent-exennia ad O Radix 
XVId.” This “ O Radix Jesse ” was the third of the seven 
Roman or Gregorian Great Os, 2 the antiphons which preceded 
and again followed the Magnificat at vespers before Christmas. 
The first, O Sapientia, was sung on December 16th, and the day 
is still marked in the Kalendar of the Book of Common Prayer. 
The Abbot seems usually to have been the officiant on that 
occasion; the Prior sang the next, “ O Adonai,” and on the 
19th the Hortulanus was the officiant, and sang the special 
antiphon. The well-known Advent hymn, “ O come, O come, 
Emmanuel,” is a translation by John Mason Neale (1818-1866) 
of a Latin versification of five of the Great Os written about 
the thirteenth century ; the second verse of this hymn being a 
paraphrase of the 0 of the gardener. 
It will be noticed also that in these and other accounts 
the tithe is deducted. The year in which it first was enacted 
that tithe should be paid “ of fruit trees and every seed 
and herb of the garden” was a.d. 1305, the decree insisting 
on the payment being issued by the Council at Merton, in 
Surrey. 3 
The chief variations as a rule are in the tools bought, and in 
the repairs. “ For a saw,” “ knives for herbs,” “ mending a 
hatchet,” “ repairs of the garden wall,” “ lock and keys for the 
gates,” etc. ; and sometimes fruit, apples, cherries, beans, 
onions, or such-like, had to be bought when the garden supply 
1 Blomefield, History of Bicester. 
2 Archceologia , vol. xlix. Article by Everard Green, F.S.A. 
3 Wilkins’ Concilia, vol. ii., p. 278 ; “ Mertonense,” 1305, “ et de 
fructibus arborum et seminibus omnibus et herbis hortorum.” 
