A HISTORY OF 
GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
CHAPTER I 
MONASTIC GARDENING 
“ Forsitan, et pingues hortos quae cura colendi 
Ornaret, canerem, ...” 
Virgil: Geor., iv. 118. 
HE history of the Gardens of England follows step by 
1 step the history of the people. In times of peace and 
plenty they increased and flourished, and during years of war 
and disturbance they suffered. The various races that have 
predominated and rulers that have governed this country 
influenced the gardens in a marked degree. Therefore, in 
tracing their history, the people whose national characteristics 
or whose foreign alliances left a stamp upon the gardens they 
made must not be lost sight of. 
Nothing worthy of the name of a garden existed in Britain 
before the Roman Conquest. The Britons revered the oak, 
and held the mistletoe sacred, and stained their bodies with 
woad, 1 but of any efforts they may have made for the cultiva¬ 
tion of these or any other plants nothing is known. The history 
of Horticulture in this country cannot fairly be said to begin 
before the coming of the Romans. In this, as in other sciences, 
the Romans were so far advanced that it was centuries 
before they were surpassed, or even equalled, by any other 
nation. 
They cultivated most of the vegetables with which we are 
still familiar. At Rome, said Pliny the Elder, “ the garden 
1 Mr. Baker points out that woad is not wild in Britain. 
I 
