SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
197 
his boy in about ten dayes time, in a ground of 90 acres, took 
3 bus[hels] old and young. Among Mr. Speed’s notes there are 
these receipts : Take red herrings and cutting them in pieces 
burn the pieces on the molehills, or you may put garlicke or 
leeks in the mouths of their Hill, and the moles will leave the 
ground. I have not tryed these ways, and therefore refer the 
reader to his own tryal, belief or doubt.” 
For the destruction of other garden pests many equally 
fanciful remedies were in vogue. Lawson recommends to pick 
off all caterpillars with the hand, “ and tread them under foot.” 
“ I like nothing of smoake among my trees,” he says ; “ un- 
naturall heates are nothing good for naturall trees.” He 
enumerates the things necessary for keeping the garden free 
from “ beasts ”—“ besides your out strong fence, you must have 
a fayre and swift greyhound, a stone-bowe, gunne, and if neede 
require, an apple with an hooke for a Deere, and a Hare-pipe 
for a hare ”; and against blackbirds, bullfinches, and other small 
birds, “ the best remedy here is a stone-bow, a peece.” No 
survey of the garden would be complete without mention of 
the bees, whose hives were to be found in them all, and the 
management of which was considered a necessary part of a 
gardener’s duties, and writers on gardening subjects generally 
devoted a chapter to bees. 1 
One memorable event in the time of Charles I. was the for¬ 
mation of the first Botanical Garden in England, at Oxford, 
in 1632. This was just a hundred years after the establishment 
of the earliest in Europe, that at Padua. Henry, Earl of 
Danby, founded and endowed it; he gave five acres of land, 
also built greenhouses, and a house for the gardener. The fine 
gateways, bearing a date and inscription in praise of the 
founder, were designed by Inigo Jones. Jacob Bobart, a 
German, from Brunswick, first had charge of it, and he was 
succeeded by his son, also Jacob. The entrance to the garden 
from the meadow was guarded by two large yew-trees, clipped 
into the form of giants, which have been the subject of much 
rival wit, and no less than three ballads on them have been 
preserved. 2 
1 Thomas Hill, The Right Ordering of Bees , 1593 and 1608. 
2 Memorials of Oxford , by James Ingram; Oxford, J. H. Parker, 1837. 
