GARDENING UNDER WILLIAM AND MARY 211 
seen at Melbourne in Derbyshire. The gardens of Sir Richard 
Child, at Wanstead in Essex, of Bushey Park, of Cranborne, 
and of Castle Howard, were some of their other works ; at the 
last-mentioned place Switzer says they reached “ the highest 
pitch that Natural and Polite gardening can ever arrive to.” 
On the accession of Queen Anne, Wise was given the care of 
the Royal Gardens, and London confined himself chiefly to 
work in the country. He passed his time going a round of 
great gardens, frequently, it is said, riding a distance of fifty 
to sixty miles a day in the course of his business. 
Moses Cook, one of the original partners, published a work on 
forest-trees, but London and Wise were the popular writers, as 
well as designers, of the firm. They translated two works from 
the French —The Complete Gardener , from Jean de la Quintinye 
(first edition, 1699), and The Retired Gardener, from Louis Liger, 
with The Solitary Gardener, from Le Gentil. They added 
copious notes from their own experience ; the information is 
all conveyed in the form of question and answer between a 
gentleman about to purchase a seat in the country, and “ taste 
the Sweets of Country Life,” and a gardener. The gentleman 
asks such questions as, “ Suppose I have some cases sent me 
from abroad . . . when I receive them my ground is lock’d up 
by a frost. . . what must I do with them ?” Gardener : “ Upon 
Receipt of your trees, which I suppose sent in cases with moss 
laid round the roots . . . you must keep ’em in a cellar till your 
ground is capable of receiving ’em. . . . Take your roots out 
of the cases, and trim their roots. . . . After steep the roots 
in water for a Day, and then set them. ... If you observe 
this rule you won’t lose one of your Trees, tho’ they have 
been out of the ground for three or four months together.” 
London and Wise’s experience follows, and is rather contra¬ 
dictory : “ We had some peaches grafted on Almond’s Stocks 
from France, in 1698 . . . which were three months out of the 
ground, notwithstanding all requisite care ... we could not 
save ten trees out of the whole hundred.” In another chapter 
it is recommended, in sending layers and slips from abroad, 
to rub them first with honey, and then cover in damp moss, 
or stick them into " a piece of Potter’s Earth tempered with 
honey,” and wrap round with moss. In this work the growing 
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