3T2 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENE®. 
January 15. 
dreams and illusions; but it is singular for wounds, as 
aforesaid.” 
Baubiii, ill bis J/istoriu Flantarum, gives a copious 
account of this Fern, with three very good delineations 
of it and it varieties. He says the alcbymists employed 
its juice for fixing Mercury. 
Coles, in bis Adam in Eden, 501, tells us; “It is 
said, yea, and believed by many, that moonwort will 
open the locks wherewith dwelling-houses are made fast, 
if it be put in the ke 3 f-hole; as also that it will loosen 
the locks, fetters, and shoes from those horses’ feet that 
goe on the places where it groweth ; and of this opinion 
was Master Culpeper, who, though he railed against 
superstition in others, yet had enough of it himselfe, as 
may appear by his story of the Earl of Essex his horses, 
which being drawn up in a body, many of thorn lost 
their shoes upon White Downe in Devonshire, near 
Tiverton,because moonwort grows upon heaths.” Turner, 
in his British Physician, 8vo. .Lend. 1087, p. 209, is 
confident that though moonwort “ be the moon’s herb, 
yet it is neither smith, farrier, nor picklock.” Withers, 
in allusion to the supposed virtues of the moonwort, in 
the introduction to his Abuses Stript and Whipt,'lC23, 
says: 
“ There is an herb, some say, whose vertue’s such 
It in the pasture, only W'ith a touch, 
Unshooes the new-shod steed.” 
To induce it to grow in a Fern garden it should be 
moved with a square foot of the turf in which it is i 
growing, and as much of depth of the soil undisturbed, 
and planted upon an open, unshaded, well-drained 
situation. It requires a soil light, and mixed with a 
little peat. It likes to have its roots covered with turf, 
but even the grass must not overshadow it. We never 
succeeded well in its culture. 
Many years ago, in those days when “ The Tally-Ho,” 
and “ Eclipse,” and “ Old Blue,” besides numerous other 
coaches, gave liveliness all along, and profit to many 
chosen spots, of the road extending between White¬ 
chapel and Colchester, a passenger descended from the 
racing coach first named, and sought accominodation at 
the road-side Inn, which scarcely looked defiant enough 
to justify its sign of “The Cock.” 
However, that was its title; and “ fi'he Cock at Bore- 
ham” was somewhat well-lvnown as well for its good 
homely cheer, as a meet of the East Essex Fox-hounds, 
and for various other local celebrities. Amongst others, 
for the fact that its sign had boon painted by a brush 
no less celebrated than that of Morland. Boor George 
Morland “loved good ale and wine,” and he is much 
belied if ho did not also “ love good brandy,” and as 
“The Cock” happened to afford all three of these 
his favourite li([uors, jioor Iviorlaud ran up a score there 
far longer than his purse could satisfy. 8o his biush 
had to complete the obliteration, and such a Game Cock 
(a regular Black-breasted lied) stood erect upon the 
sign-board as never gai nished a village ale-house before. 
There it swung, in all wealbers. upon a gibbet-like ])OSt 
by the road-side opposite to that against which the Inn 
door abutted. 
Years passed on, and the painting had faded under 
such exposure, when it was taken down to be retouched 
by some neighbouring jiainter and glazier ! To save it 
from such sacrilege came the above-named Passenger i 
per “ The Tally-Ho,” but he arrived too late, and the 
IMorland relique was no more. 
This Passenger was a man of jdants as well as of I 
paints, and he resolved on the day following to pass on 
to the first and last resting-place of John Bay, “ the 
English Linnajus.” That resting-plaee. Black Notley, 
was only some ten miles distant, and he could call by 
the way to see the fine old Cedars at Topinghoe Hall^ 
planted by Mortimer in the time of the Stuarts. So 
forth onr Passenger sped, and after walking some three 
miles along the road, and passing the object of his 
search, and getting into some of the lanes about Hat¬ 
field Peverel, he sought for guidance of a hale-looking 
man whose name and trade alike were Gardener. He 
was courteously afforded the directions he required, and, 
to prevent further mistake, the gardener’s son, a mere 
boy, w'as despatched to point out more clearly the object 
of his search. 
Since then many years have passed, and no thought 
of that boy had ever passed across our Passenger’s mind 
until he read in an Essex paper of a festival held at 
that village of Hatfield Peverel a few weeks since. At 
that festival, where were assembled many of the county 
aristocracy, the two speeches which follow w'ere delivered. 
They tell how they come to be connected with these 
notes, and they bear witness that the son of the spade 
may claim the same praise as that bestowed upon his 
brother eultivator—“ Give me a soldier from the Plough 
rather than from the Loom.” 
At the festival alluded to, at which a sw^ord and well- 
filled purse were presented to the hero of the meeting, 
the Chairman, Loud Bayleigii, spoke as follows;— 
“ Before I perform the duty wbicli lias been imposed upon 
me, of presenting Lieutenant Gardner with these tokens of 
our esteem and approbation, 1 think it hut fair I should 
state for him to those here present that lie was yesterday 
so ill that his medical adviser recommended him to remain 
in his bed, and that he liad a certilicate written to excuse 
his non-attendance here to-day ; hut being too late for 
the iiost, ho has ventured, perliaps at the risk of his 
life, to ojipose the advice of his medical attendant, and I 
to come in order to he jiresent on this occa.sion. It j 
may, perhatis, be thought that he should ap 2 )ear on this i 
occasion in regimentals; but being very late, though he ' 
had seen his name allixed to his iiortmanteau, and, as ! 
ho thought, a servant of the railway coinjiany with it in his 
hand, yet, uiion his arrival at Brentwood, which was the last 
station he could reach, ho found that his xiortmanteau was , 
not forthcoming. 'Wai therefore do not meet Lieut. (Jardiu-r I 
in that cheering and animated way in which 1 had hoped to i 
have met him. But these are the effects of divine Brovi- ' 
deuce, and it is as well that vanity should he stamped upon ! 
all these kinds of proceedings. (Turning to the guest of 
the day, he continued)—Lieutenant Gardner, 1 have heen ! 
reip.iested to jiresido iqion this occasion, and dejiuted by the 
inhabitants—the gentry, the landowners of this your native j 
‘luirish, and also many others, such as the ^'ice-Chairmau, i 
who have seized upon this o]iportunity of doing honour 
where honour is due,—(cheers)—to present to you a sword 
and a purse. In so doing 1 con.sider we hve still your , 
debtors. (Cheers.) Your coming amongst us to day, and 
