January 2.] THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 207 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
- j 
M W 
JANUARY 2—8, 1851. 
Weather near London in 1850. 
Sun 
Sun 
! Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
D D 
J_ 
Barometer. Thermo. 
Wind. Rain in In. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
2 Th 
Shclless Snail (Slug) appears. 
1 
[30.223 — 30.221 39—27 
N.W.! — 
9 a. 8 
IV 
sets. 
@ 
4 
12 
2 
3 F 
Wild Pansy flowers. 
30.201—29 991) 41—38 
N.W. 0.02 
8 
1 
5a.11 
1 
4 
40 
3 
4 S 
Hcpatiea flowers. 
•29737 — 29.415 48—28 
S.W, — 
8 
2 
: 8 10 
2 
5 
8 
4 
5 Son 
2 Sunday after Christmas. 
29.437 — 29 . 42/1 42—21 
W. — 
8 
3 
7 13 
3 
5 
35 
5 
6 M 
Epiphany. Twelfth Day. 
29.599 —29.426 ( 35—18 
E. — 
8 
5 
8 17 
4 
6 
2 
6 
7 To 
30.154 — 29.8fi7 36—14 
N. — 
7 
8 
1 9 21 
5 
6 
23 
7 
8 W 
Furze flowers. 
30.330 — 30.2321 36—31 
N.E. 1 — 
1 7 
7 
10 28 
6 
8 
54 
8 
In the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and in the same tomb with his 
brother, are contained all that remains of Dit. William Bulleyn, who, 
as the inscription informs us, was famous for his learning and piety, and 
who was ever as ready to devote his skill and medicines to the healing of 
the poor as of the rich. He was a divine as well as a physician—a union 
of professions then not at all unusual, and continuing to be so united 
even as late as 1780, in which year died Dr. Gower, a physician practising 
at Chelmsford, and who at the same time performed the clerical duties of 
the neighbouring village of Chignall. Dr. Bulleyn was born in the Isle 
of Ely, early in the reign of Henry VIII. ; and it is not improbable that 
he was a kinsman of Queen Anne Boleyn, or Bulleyn, for thus is her 
name spelt in many records of those days of uncertain orthography. 
Like her, his relatives were scattered over the eastern counties of England ; 
and, like her, he was a zealous Protestant. He appears to have been a 
member of both our English Universities, and to have travelled far and 
long in Germany, Scotland, and England—studying their natural pro¬ 
ductions with a zeal and success marking him very prominently as a man 
of science in that age, benighted as it was in everything appertaining to 
Natural History. In 1550 he was appointed to the Rectory of Blaxhall, 
in Suffolk; but being an unflinching opponent of the leading doctrines 
| of the Papal Church, he resigned his preferment soon after the accession 
j of Queen Mary in 1553. Soon after he settled in practice as a physician 
I at Durham, and became a co-proprietor with Sir Thomas Hilton in salt 
works near Tynemouth Castle ; and even after the disease of Sir Thomas 
he tells us, “ in the north there is salt made at the shiles by Tinmouth 
| Castle. I Bullein, the author hereof, have a pan of salt upon the same 
i water.” But Sir Thomas had been his chief patron, so the doctor 
removed to London, was elected a member of the College of Physicians 
in 1560, and soon became known as a skilful practitioner. Yet his day of 
prosperity was soon overclouded, and a series of misfortunes visited him 
which would have overwhelmed an ordinary man, but which were the 
occasion, as in the case of John Bunyan, of our possessing those pub¬ 
lications from which we shall conclude by making a few extracts. The 
outline of those misfortunes cannot be better sketched than by his own 
pen, as follows :— 
“ To the friendly reader William Bulleyn sendetli salutation. Foras¬ 
much, good reader, as four years last past (this was written in 1562) I 
promised in a book of mine, called The Government of Health (which I 
dedicated to a knight of great worship in the north—Sir Thomas, the 
Baron of Hilton), to set forth another book of healthful medicines; even 
so, by the space of one year after the same, l travailed to perform my 
promise made, and so finished my copy, which copy did perish by ship¬ 
wreck, and so my labour was lost. And not only my labour but also my 
life endangered by sundry malicious and devilish inventions, by and 
through one William Hilton, in nature brother to the foresaid Baron of 
Hilton, but in conditions nothing like at all, for he wanted bis gentleness 
and good nature. Now, after that God had delivered me from the great 
peril of this man—that is to say, conspiring of my guiltless death and 
iiurtlcss life towards him and his (on a charge of murdering Sir Thomas), 
eftsoon this man attempted another new displeasure against me for debt, 
colouring his malice by a pretence of law. By which action, finally, I 
was imprisoned, raethought a long time (for there be but few guests that 
have pleasure in such inns). Now, being thus in prison, methought I 
had not only convenient time but also a quiet conscience to travail in 
renewing my late book, or lost copy, which indeed I am not able to finish, 
being prevented by so many troubles and lets of my said enemy, whose 
doings at large I commit to silence, least I should seem to write a story 
or tragedy, or else a description of his folly in the place of Physick.” 
We learn from other sources that Sir Thomas Hilton had died of a 
malignant fever, and that having left a portion of his property to Dr. 
Bulleyn was the c.mse of his brother’s persecution, who not only charged 
the Doctor with the murder of Sir Thomas, but, failing in this, hired 
ruffians to assassi "*10 him. In this he also failed; but we have seen that 
j he was more sure, sful in his suit for an imaginary debt. How long Dr. 
Bulleyn remained in prison we have been unable to discover, but we have 
i some fear that he died within its walls ; for that event occurred on the 7th 
: of January, 1576; and in the collected edition of his works, dated 1579, 
1 some commendatory verses prefixed state — 
“ It was at first but roughly hewen out, 
Himself that time in prison fast detained ; 
No marvel, then, though scapes and faults did sprout, 
Since he the while from liberty was wained : 
Yet his good will, his skill, and love unfeigned, 
He kept not back, but offered it to all, 
In hope thereby to pleasure great and small.” 
This book is entitled, A Bulwark of Defence against all Sickness , 
Soreness, and Wounds that do assault Mankind ; which Bulwark is 
kept with Ilillarius the Gardener, Health the Physician , with their 
Chirurgeon to help the wounded soldiers, tyc. The work is full of the 
information afforded by Greek and Roman authors relative to most 
medical and culinary plants, hut it contains also much which gives us an 
I insight into the horticultural knowledge of the time during which Dr. 
Bulleyn lived ; nor is this the only ground on which is founded his title to 
| a notice in our pages. At that period it wus usual to despise the produce 
of our English gardens ; and there is good reason for believing that our 
gardeners then betrayed an ignominious inferiority when compared with 
those of Flanders. Sugar was eaten as sauce with every kind of flesh 
meat, yet not because vegetables were little esteemed ; for Catherine, the 
I last Queen of Henry VIII., was accustomed to send a messenger to 
Holland, or Flanders, when she required a salad. If our gardeners had 
grown good fruits and vegetables there was a demand for them ; but they 
were inferior to those grown by our foreign neighbours ; and as wealth 
knew no obstacle to indulging in these it became a fashion to have them \ 
upon table, and the gardeners of London submitted to be importers of I 
these edibles. The readiest and usual excuse for the national inferiority j 
of our garden produce was to assert that our climate and soil were j 
unfavourable to its growth. Against this unfounded excuse Dr. Bulleyn 
stood forward the patriotic opponent. Speaking of the Cabbage, he says, j 
“This is good to make pottage withall, and is a profitable herb in a i 
commonwealth, which the Flemings sell dear ; but we have it growing in j 
our own gardens, if we would prefer our own commodity before idleness, j 
and not suffer weeds to grow where herbs should be planted.” There j 
are other passages of similar purport, and these aiding the suggestions j 
of private interest soon caused our horticulture to he more attended to, 
and with its improvement the importation of salads ceased. Henry VIII. 
set an example which others followed—he sent his gardener, who was a 
French priest, named Woolf, to travel on the continent for the express * 
purpose of acquiring a better knowledge of the gardening art. 
Dr. Bulleyn’s work gives us some other glimpses of his contemporary j 
horticulture. Of Hops he thus speaks—“ Clean brewed beer, if it be not ; 
very strong, brewed with good Hops is very wholesome. It is an usual 
or common drink in most places of England, which indeed is hurt and I 
made worse with many hops dried like dust, which cometh from beyond j 
sea ; yet it is known that the goodly fields and fruitful grounds of i 
England do bring forth for man’s use as good hops as do grow in any 
place of the world, as by proof I know in many places of the county of 
Suffolk, where they brew their beer with the hops that grow upon their 
own grounds, as in a place called Brisiard, near to an old famous castle 
called Framlingham.” Of Pears he says, “ There is a kind growing in 
the city of Norwich, called the Black Friars’ Pear, very delicious and 
pleasant, and no less protitable unto a hot stomach, as I heard it reported 
by a right worshipful physician of the same city, called Doctor Manlield, 
who said he thought that those pears, without all comparison, were the 
best that grew in any place of England.” Of Apples and their produce 1 
he was no great admirer—“They be of many kinds,” he says, “ as 
Costards, the Green Coat, the Pippin, the Queen Apple, and so forth, j 
There is a windy drink made of them called Cider! ” In speaking of ( 
Rushes, he gives us this incidental notice of the customs of his time : 
“ Of rushes growing in running streams there be great plenty round 
about the Isle of Ely, my native country, whereof the plain people make 
mats and horsc-coliars of the greater rushes, and of the smaller they | 
make lights or candles for the winter. Rushes that grow upon dry 
ground be good to strew in halls, chambers, and galleries, to walk upon, j 
defending apparel, as trains of gowns and kirtles, from dust. Rushes be j 
old courtiers, and when they he nothing worth then they he cast out of j 
doors—so be many that do tread upon them.” We have often failed in J 
discerning why the Houseleek should be so named, but the Doctor’s , 
spelling unravels the mystery. It is a corruption of Houslike, evidently ■ 
in reference to its fondness tor the roof of a house, or other structure, as j 
its place of growth. The whole passage is worth extracting, and with it j 
we must conclude our notice of this good sterling old Englishman. “ It 
is called Houselike and Secngrcen in the south parts ot England, but in 
the north it is called Full. In Latin it is Sedutn , or Semper vivum that 
is, evermore living and never dying ; therefore the old writers call it 
Jovis barbu, Jupiter’s Beard, and hold an opinion superstitiously, that in 
what house soever it groweth no lightning nor tempest can take place to 
do any harm there.” 
Meteorology of the Week.—A t Chiswick, from observations made 
during tlic last twenty-four years, it appears that there the average 
highest and lowest temperatures of this week are 40.7° and 30.2°, 
respectively. The greatest heat observed, 54°, was on the 6th in the year , 
1815 ; and the lowest cold, 6 °, was on the 7th in 1811. During the period 1 
rain fell on 6l days, and 107 were fine. 
Ins kcts .—The lar¬ 
va of the Bright-line- 
brown-eve, or Pot¬ 
herb Moth ( Mamestra 
olerarca), may be now 
found, or rather early 
in December, beneath 
the surface of the 
earth, undergoing its 
transformations. This 
caterpillar is one of 
the most destructive 
of our garden enemies, 
feeding on cabbages, but more especially brocoli, lettuces, and some 
other garden produce during the autumn. It is of a livid yellowish- 
brown colour, darkly striped on the back and sides, and with a white , 
stripe nearly over the feet, which arc light brown. It has black dots | 
between the dark stripes. When young, and sometimes even when fully j 
grown, it has a green ground colour. The moth comes forth in the \ 
summer. It measures one and a half inch across the fore-wings, which 
are nearly of a uniform cliesnut colour, but slightly clouded, and with a 
whitish irregular line near the outer edge, with an orange-coloured 
kidney-shaped spot near it, and a roundish dark spot near the centre. 
The under wings are dusky white, with the veins and a crescent-shaped 
spot in the centre all dusky. 
No. CXYIII., Vox.. V. 
