February 3. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
337 
was it, as some still more erroneously have stated, the 
first that existed in England. Fruit was grown for 
commercial pin-poses from time immemorial before then; 
but the reason why Richard Harris left his counter 
I and his counting-house to become a Kentish fruit¬ 
grower, was the very same that would induce many an 
equally-respectable fruiterer of the present day to act 
similarly. It was this : “ Having observed that tliose 
plants wliich had been brought over by our Norman 
ancestors had lost their native excellence by length of 
time, and that we were served from foreign parts with 
those fruits : on that account, which he saw no reason 
for, as neither the soil nor the climate here were unequal 
to the bringing of them to perfection, determined to try 
a plantation here; for which purpose, having in 1533 
obtained 105 acres of rich land, then called The Brennet, 
he divided it into ten parcels, .and then having with 
great care, good choice, and no small labour and cost, 
brought plants from beyond tlio seas, he furnished this 
ground with them in rows, in most beautiful order.” 
The necessity for such a complete change of the 
system which had hitherto prevailed, and the success 
which attended this experiment were so great, that 
Tenham became the centre from which all the other 
plantations emanated. So extensive and rapid was the 
influence which this example had, that Lambarde, 
writing in 1570, says, this parish, with thirty others 
lying on each side of the great road from Rainham to 
Bleamwood, was, in his time, the cherry-garden and 
apple-orchard of Kent; and, further, that “ the orchards 
of apples, and gardens of cherries, and those of the 
most delicious and exquisite kinds that can be, no part 
of the realm (that I know) hath them, either in such 
quantity and number, or with such art and industry 
set and planted.” 
We shall not stay to inquire into the decline and fall 
of these orchards, nor shall we trace the causes which 
led to these results; but, in all probability, the trees 
were allowed to become aged, diseased, and unfruitful, 
a succession was not provided, and they became extinct. 
We are iudneed to believe that such was the case, for a 
writer of that time states, that these orchards continued 
to exist till within memory, when the lucre of planting 
Hops prevailing, few of them were sufiered to remain. 
From the fact, too, of the writers of the 17th century, 
among whom were Ralph Austen, Ilartlib, Bligh, 
Evelyn, and Worlidge, urging so strongly the encourage¬ 
ment of orchard planting as being a matter which 
should engage the attention of tlie government as well 
as private individuals, there is every reason to believe 
that the cultivation of fruits had, to a great extent, been 
discontinued and neglected. By the writings of these 
men a fresh impulse was given : new plantations were 
formed, and new varieties of fruit introduced, the old 
t varieties having been allowed to disappear with the old 
orchards. The new sorts were as superior to the former 
as the former were to those of which Richard Harris 
complained. But these new plantations were doomed, 
in their turn, to the same fate as all the others which 
preceded them; and so, in the year 1778, we find it said 
that Rainham had “ within memoi-y great plantations 
of cherries and apples, especially on the lands adjoining 
the high road, and to the northward of it; but the 
greatest part of them have been displanted some years 
since.” And of Newington it is said, that it “ was 
formerly the greatest part of it planted with orchards 
of apples, cherries, and other kinds of fruit; -these 
falling to decay, and the price of Hops making them 
a more advantageous commodity than fruit, most of the 
orchards in the parish were displanted, and Hops raised 
in their stead.” 
We shall give one more instance; it is of Bordeu, 
where “the land is fertile, and much covered with 
orchards, and some years ago ''more so than at this 
time, many of them being decayed and worn out, were 
displanted.” Now these orchards of which we have 
last spoken wei'e, no doubt, those which were called into 
existence by the writers of the 17th century; but no 
regular systematic planting and successive cultivation 
of fruit-trees seems ever to have been kept up in this 
country; whatever was done was brought about by 
urgency, and carried out with impetuosity, but no 
steady, continuous system of operation; and hence the 
state in which our orchards were at the close of the last 
century. 
Wo shall continue the subject in our next, when we 
shall see and be able to judge more clearly of the 
operations of this system of orchard management. 
H. 
COVENT GARDEN. 
We have bad occasion, from time to time, to expose 
the evil deeds which are perpetrated in Coveut Garden 
Market: they are neither few nor small. We have to 
add another this week, which is of a somewhat different 
nature to what we have noticed before. For the last 
two or three weeks we have reported “ new potatoes,” 
and no doubt many of our country readers were curious 
to know where they came from—whether they were 
imported from Holland, raised in frames, or brought 
from some far-away country, where there is no frost 
and no winter, but a perpetual summer of perpetual 
sunshine. They come from neither. They are the 
produce of that greatest of all gardens—Covent Garden. 
They don’t grow; they require no early planting, no 
dry soil, no manure, and are liable to no “ disease.” 
They are like the poor little chickens that are hatched 
by hot-water or steam; they have no mother. They 
are, in fact, handsome, smooth-skinned, medium-sized 
kidneys, selected from any potato pit or cellar, and well 
scalded with boiling water to remove the outer skin, 
and blanched. These are sold for Is. per pound. We 
leave our readers to judge of the profitableness of tliis 
mode of cultivation. 
The same dullness of trade continues, and the same 
abundant supply of all kinds of Vegetables is not 
diminished. 'The prices which we have reported for 
the last week or two are applicable now. Savoys from 
(id. to lOd. and Is. per dozen. Brocoli, 3s. to 4s. per 
