i4 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
cramped streets, the noisy clamour, the rough and un¬ 
couth manners, are unpleasing to realise. The contrast 
of the little walled gardens, where the women could sit, 
and the busy men find a little quiet from the noise 
outside, must indeed have been precious. The pro¬ 
fession of a gardener, however, did not seem to soften 
their behaviour, for some of the worst offenders were 
gardeners. So serious did the “ scurrility, clamour, and 
nuisance of the gardeners and their servants,” who sold 
their fruit and vegetables in the market, become, that 
they disturbed the Austin Friars at their prayers in the 
church hard by, and caused so much annoyance to the 
people living near, that in 1345 a petition, to have these 
“ gardeners of the earls, barons, bishops, and citizens ” 
removed to another part of the town, was presented to 
the Lord Mayor. Later on, gardening operations in the 
City and for six miles round were restricted to freemen 
and apprentices of the Gardeners’ Company, and the sale 
of vegetables was almost exclusively in their hands. Their 
guild had power to seize and destroy all bad plants, or 
those exposed for sale by unlicensed persons. The 
Gardeners’ Company, incorporated in 1605, h a d a second 
charter in 1616, and a confirmation of their rights in 
1635, and it still remains one of the City companies. 
All the smaller householders, even in the crowded 
parts, continued to enjoy their little gardens for many 
centuries. Even after the spoliation of the monasteries, 
the houses rebuilt on their sites had their little en¬ 
closures ; and large houses such as Sir William Pawlet’s, 
on the ground of the Augustine monastery, or later on 
Sir Christopher Hatton’s on Ely Place, had their gardens 
around them. Even now, in the heart of London, a small 
row of shabby old houses survives, each with a small garden 
