322 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
frugum, fsecundum.” Yet Bede, writing in the eighth century, 
describes England as “ opima frugibus atque arboribus insula, 
et alendis apta pecoribus et jumentis Yineas etiam quibusdam 
in locis germinans.” 1 
From that time till the time of Shakespeare there is abundant 
proof not only of the growth of the Vine as we now grow it in 
gardens, but in large Vineyards, In Anglo-Saxon times “ a 
Vineyard” is not unfrequently mentioned in various documents. 
“Edgar gives the Vineyard situated at Wecet, with the 
Vine-dressers.”-— Turner's Anglo-Saxons. “ ‘Domesday Book ’ 
contained thirty-eight entries of valuable Vineyards; one in 
Essex consisted of six acres, and yielded twenty hogsheads of 
wine in a good year. There was another of the same extent at 
Ware.”—H. Evershed, in Gardener's Chronicle . So in the 
Norman times, “ Giraldus Cambrensis, speaking of the Castle 
of Manorbeer (his birthplace), near Pembroke, said that it had 
under its walls, besides a fish-pond, a beautiful garden, enclosed 
on one side by a Vineyard and on the other by a wood, re¬ 
markable for the projection of its rocks and the height of its 
Hazel trees. In the twelfth century Vineyards were not un¬ 
common in England.”— -Wright. Neckham, writing in that 
century, refers to the usefulness of the Vine when trained 
against the wall-front: “Pampinus latitudine sua excipit seris 
insultus, cum res ita desiderat, et fenestra clementiam caloris 
Solaris admittat.” 
In the time of Shakespeare I suppose that most of the Vines 
in England were grown in Vineyards of more or less extent, 
trained to poles. These formed the “ pole-clipt Vineyards” 
of No. 21, and are thus described by Gerard: “The Vine is 
held up with poles and frames of wood, and by that means it 
spreadeth all about and climbeth aloft; it joyneth itselfe unto 
trees, or whatsoever standeth next unto it ”—in other words, 
the Vine was then chiefly grown as a standard in the open 
ground. 
1 According to Vopiscus, England is indebted to the Emperor Probus 
(A.I). 276 — 282) for the Vine : “ Gallis omnibus et Britannis et Hispanis 
bine permisit ut vites haberent, et Vinum conficerent.” 
