INTRODUCTORY 
7 
has to be learnt by slow and hard lessons, dearly pur¬ 
chased under the iron rod of experience. It is not till 
the want of a green spot is brought painfully home to 
people by its loss, that the thought of saving the last 
remaining speck of greenery is borne in upon them with 
sufficient force to transform the wish into action. For 
generations garden after garden has passed into building 
land. No one has a right to grudge the wealth or pros- 
perity that has accrued in consequence, but the wish that 
the benevolence and foresight of past days had taken a 
different bent, and that a more systematic retention of 
some of the town gardens had received attention, cannot 
be banished. 
When Roman civilisation had been swept away in 
Britain, and with it all vestiges of the earliest gardens, 
there are no vestiges of horticulture until Christianity had 
taken hold of the country, and religious houses were 
rising up in various parts of the kingdom. The cradle 
of modern gardening may be said to have been within 
the peaceful walls of these monastic foundations. In no 
part of the country were they more numerous than in 
and around London, and it is probable that every estab¬ 
lishment had its garden for the supply of vegetables, and 
more particularly medicinal herbs. Attached to most 
of them, there was also a special garden for the produc¬ 
tion of flowers for decoration on church festivals. It is 
probable that the earliest London gardens were of this 
monastic character, and as long as the buildings were 
maintained the gardens were in existence. The Grey, 
the Black, the White, and the Austin Friars all had 
gardens within their enclosures; and the Hospitaller 
Orders—the Templars and Knights of St. John—had 
large gardens within their precincts. The Temple 
