January 1 . the COTTAGE GARDENER. 207 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
1 
M w 
D D 
JANUARY 1-7, 1852. 
WEATHER 
Barometer. 
NEAR Lo 
Thermo. 
N DON 
Wind. 
N 1851. 
Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun i Moon 
Sets. R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
! 
1 Th 
Circumcision. 
29707 —29.646 
54—51 
s.w. 
02 
VIII 
iv 1 m 30 
10 
3 
37 
1 
2 F 
Gray Wagtail seen. 
, 29.801 — 29.707 
53—43 
s.w. 
— 
9 
0 2 37 
11 
4 
5 
2 
3'S 
Mezereon flowers. 
29.949 — 29.831 
46—35 
N.E. 
56 
8 
1 3 46 
12 
4 
33 
3 
4 Sun 
2 Sunday after Christmas. 
29.846 — 29.648 
47—39 
s. 
02 
8 
2 4 56 
13 
5 
1 
4 
5 M 
Hedge Dunnock sings. 
129.554 — 29.512 
47—24 
w. 
— 
8 
3 | 6 7 
14 
5 
28 
5 
6 Tu 
Epiphany. Twelfth Day. 
29.581 —29.520 
45—31 
S.E. 
— 
8 
4 7 13 
15 
5 
55 
6 
71W 
'29.560 — 29.447 
47-27 
S.E. 
02 
7 
5 rises. 
© 
6 
21 
7 
In August last, as we told at page 299 of our sixth volume, we threaded 
the green lanes of Silksted, near Winchester, in search of traces of old 
John Taverner, who, five half centuries ago, told of his experiments on 
“ Fish and Fruit.” There being no church at that recluse hamlet, and 
its “ rustic dead ” having from time immemorial passed to dust in the 
churchyard of Hurstley, towards this last-named village we continued 
our pilgrimage. We sought vainly for any notice of Taverner, or of his 
connections, in the church registers, but vve were rewarded by finding 
ourselves among the records of the Cromwells. Strange records these, 
speaking with trumpet notes of the instability of human dignities, and 
warning us that they who build upon an unjust foundation must fall, or 
by continued injustice maintaining their place, must, in the words of 
Solomon, like other transgressors, “ eat violence.” It was so with 
Richard Cromwell, the second Protector, whose burial stands thus re¬ 
corded in this simple railage register—“Richard Cromwell, Esq., was 
buried 18th of July, 1712 .” If we knew not the fact, could we suspect 
( that the subject of this record once sat upon the throne of England '! 
Yet sit there he did, and as he was mild and pious, he rises in some¬ 
what disadvantageous relief aboye his legitimate and more permanent 
successor—Charles the 2nd. He fell by the violence to which he would 
not resort for support. 
In 1/84, there was living in Hurstley, one Peter Colson, who re¬ 
membered the ex-protector well, told anecdotes of his hunting, and of 
his domestic habits, and who carried a torch at his funeral. The reason 
| for so many of the Cromwells resting in Hurstley church, is found in the 
fact, that the adjoining Manor of Merdon came to Richard Cromwell in 
right of his wife, who was Dorothy, the eldest daughter and co-heiress of 
I Richard Major, Esq., of Southampton. It is stated that she was a 
woman of piety, ana there are many evidences of her charity; yet she 
never saw her husband after he fell into adversity, but continued to live 
in competency at Hurstley, whilst he resided in less affluence, and died at 
Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire. Even his daughters endeavoured to exclude 
him from Hurstley, and the warning he gave them with his dying breath, 
should have been felt as one of rebuke—“ Live in love. I am going to 
the God of love.” In the chancel of Hurstley church is a monument to 
I the memory of one of those daughters, “ Mrs. Elizabeth Cromwell, 
spinster, who died the 8th day of April, 1781, in the 82nd year of her 
age.” The epitaph includes, as a kind of appendix, an enumeration of 
the deaths of all her brothers and sisters, eight in number, and among 
them we noticed this : — 
Mrs. Dorothy Mortimer, a seventh daughter, wife of John Mortimer, 
Esq., died nth of May, 1 Gs 1, in the ‘list year of her age, but left no 
issue. 
Now, this led us to remembrances of many by-gone years, and to the 
subject of the present notice. In those years how often have we wandered 
among and admired, the stately cedars planted by that John Mortimer, 
and how did we regret to see the woodman’s axe bring thundering down 
those aristocratic ornaments of Toppingo Hall. Mr. Mortimer planted 
them about the first year of the 18th century, and they were giants when 
we knew them, in the hundred and thirtieth year of their age. He thus 
alludes to them in his Whole Art of Husbandry; or the way of manag¬ 
ing and improving land, of which the second edition, dated 1708 , is now 
before us :—“ It is a great pity the cedar is not more propagated among 
us, being so easily raised, and a tree that will grow so well with us. I 
have raised several of them of cones I had from Lebanon, and have now a 
walk planted with them. The seeds may be brought from the furthest 
part of the world in the cones, for I had some two years old that grew as 
well as those that were brought me direct from Mount Lebanus, and I am 
apt to believe, if they were kept in their cones, and not taken out till 
just you sow them, they may be kept for three or four years without pre¬ 
judice. They delight most in a rich, dry soil, but they grow very well 
with me in Essex, both on the hazely brick earth, and on gravel that hath 
something of good mould about a foot deep on the surface of it.” 
This John Mortimer was a merchant on Tower Hill, London, descended 
from Mark Mortimer, of Somersetshire, and would have been a large 
landed proprietor, if his paternal estates had not been destroyed by an 
inundation of the sea. He was fond of agricultural pursuits, and in 1693 , 
became possessed of an estate in Essex, Filiols, or, as it is now called, 
Toppingo Hall. He had three wives, and his second son, Cromwell, by 
his third wife, was a physician, and secretary to the Royal Society. Mr. 
Mortimer was an ingenious man, but injured his fortune by his agricultural 
experiments. He much improved Toppingo Hall, where grew the beau¬ 
tiful cedars of which we have made mention. He was a Fellow of the 
Royal Society, and wrote several pamphlets on religious education, be¬ 
sides the volume we have already noticed. 
This work was approved of in the age in which it appeared, and was 
even translated into the Swedish language, and published at Stockholm, 
in 1727 . The first portion is devoted entirely to agriculture, and of its 
merits we shall not hazard an opinion. The second portion is devoted to 
planting, arboriculture, and gardening. It is terse and superficial 
throughout, tinctured with some vulgar prejudices ; yet it contains much 
that was evidently the result of his own experience. He gives no lists of 
! varieties of any of the kitchen-garden plants. Of apples he enumerates 
i about 110—-pears, 138—cherries, 32—plums, 71 —apricots, 5—peaches, 47 
j —nectarines, lti ; of others few or none, and the directions for cul- 
: tivation are slight and imperfect. His descriptions of greenhouses are 
\ grossly deficient, and would convey the information that glass was not 
employed in their construction at the time of publishing the fifth 
edition. He even advocates the warming them by open fires in holes 
I sunk in various parts of the floor. He dismisses the cultivation of the 
J potato in ten lines, more than four of which are occupied by the follow¬ 
ing observations—“The root is very near the nature of the Jerusalem 
Artichoke, but not so good or wholesome. These are planted either of 
roots or seeds, and may probably be propagated in great quantities, and 
prove good food for swine.” 
There are many good suggestions, such as basining-up, instead of 
I earthing-up plants, so as to retain the moisture about their roots, and 
facilitating the process of watering. His work also first suggested to us 
; the utility of forming a vocabulary of the older names, by which our cul¬ 
tivated crops were known, and which, long forgotten, frequently lead to 
the interpretation of many difficult passages in our ancient literature. 
For instance, Chards were called Custom; and Nasturtiums, Capuchin 
1 Capers ; but what were J laches or Musketts ? 
Meteorology ok the Week. — At Chiswick, from observations 
during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 41.3° and 30.1° respectively. The greatest 
heat, 54°, occurred on the 6th in 1845, and the lowest cold, 6°, on the 
7th, in 1841. During the period, 104 days were fine, and on 64 rain fell. 
In a very quiet village in the county of Suffolk, lived 
an old gentleman, who on every New Year’s morning, 
whether it was in rain or sunshine, led his grand- 
| children into the garden, and made each of them follow 
his example in rooting-up a weed, and always ended 
the ceremony with: “ There—we have begun the New 
Year well—we have each made a weed less in the 
world.” It was an innocent and suggestive custom ;— 
it has clung to the memory, and has become a house¬ 
hold proverb among bis descendants, and when we 
heard it observed the other day—“ I fear Tom did not 
root up a weed on New Year’s day,” we knew that 
Tom had been “ sowing wild oats,” and that his kit and 
kindred had sat round our old friend’s Christmas fire. 
May every one who reads this our New Year’s 
opening page, cut down a weed somewhere on this day; 
that weed may be a sorrow in some neighbour’s heart, 
or a sin or a folly that disfigures his own, and each one 
that does this, may say—realizing the moral of our 
old friend’s lesson—“ There : we have begun 1852 well > 
there is one weed less in the world.” 
We have endeavoured to do so, even in the pages of 
The Cottage Gardener; the little that has been sug¬ 
gested as a blemish has been corrected—so here we 
hope there is “one weed less;” but we have also made 
an effort to do more, by adding new features of interest. 
At present we shall only point to “ Our Native Flowers,” 
and to the communication of the Rev. E. S. Dixon, the 
favourably-known author of “ Ornamental and Domestic 
Poultry,” and whose essays under the signature of D , 
to day, and in future, will enrich our pages. 
At this season, by altering, and adding to their rules, 
our various Horticultural Societies endeavour to have 
“ one weed less;” and upon this topic we have received 
the following from Mr. Glenny, whose long experience 
entitles him to attention. 
No. CLXX., V 01 , VII. 
