140 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
trees from France in 1608, but it is not known where they were 
planted. In the Exchequer Rolls of 1608, it appears that 
£100 was paid for trees and plants for silkworms, and in 1618 
" £50 to the keeper of the gardens at Theobalds for making 
a place for the King’s silkworms and providing mulberry 
leaves.” The solitary mulberry-treefs, so often to be seen in 
gardens in many parts of England, were probably planted 
when this effort was made to bring them into notice. But 
a few trees, still in existence, are even older. Coles, writing 
in 1657, says : “ The biggest tree that ever I saw groweth in 
New College in Oxon in a place between the great quadrangle 
and the garden.” 1 The four trees in the West garden at Hatfield 
Were, according to tradition, planted by Queen Eliazbeth ; 
one in the garden at Syon House was planted when the place 
was still a monastery, and at Ribston, in Yorkshire, there is a 
fine old tree which dates from the time when it was in the hands 
of the Templars, or of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, 
who succeeded them. Shakespeare twice refers to the fruit : 
“ Volumnia . . . thy stout heart 
Now humble as the ripest mulberry 
That will not hold the handling.” 
Coriolanus, Act III., Scene 2. 
He could not with one masterly touch of the pen have described 
this peculiarity of the fruit had it not been familiar to him. 
The custom of strewing rushes (various species of Juncus) on 
the floor was very general in the Middle Ages. Frequent 
notes of payment for rushes occur in the royal accounts, such 
as in 10th of Henry III., 1226, “ I2d. for hay and rushes for 
the Baron’s chamber,” and in the Household Rolls of Sir John 
Howard, 1464, item “ paid to gromes off chamber for reshis 
i6d.” Queen Mary’s presence-chamber was strewn with 
rushes, also that of Elizabeth, though she added thereto the 
luxury of a Turkey carpet. In Princess Elizabeth’s accounts, 
1551-53, a small sum was entered " to the steward for rushes.” 
The guest chambers were always freshly strewn : 
“ So here a chamber . . . 
* * * * 
I shall warande fare strewed 
It should not else to you be showed.” 2 
1 Adam in Eden , by William Coles, 1657. 
3 Towneley Mysteries. 
