June 19.] THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 171 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M W 
JUNE 19—25, 1851. 
Weather near London in 
1850. 
_ 
Sun 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Clock 
Day of 
Year. 
D D 
Barometer. Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in In. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R, & S. 
Age. 
bef. Sun. 
19 Th 
Stag Beetle seen. 
29.906 — 29.822 60—43 
S.W. 
0.02 
44 a. 3 
18 a. 8 
11 58 
20 
0 
51 
170 
20 F 
Q. Victoria’s Acc. Borage flowers. 
30.139 — 30.086: 75—50 
W. 
_ 
44 
18 
morn. 
21 
1 
4 
171 
21 S 
Q. Victoria Proclaimed. 
30.118 — 30.060, 75—42 
S.W. 
— 
! 44 
18 
0 20 
€ 
I 
17 
172 
22 Sun 
1 Sun. aft. Trin. Dropwort flowers. 
30.166 — 30.011 78—48 
w. 
— 
45 
19 
0 38 
23 
1 
30 
173 
23 M 
Cow Parsnip flowers. 
29.941 —29.822 85—52 
S.W. 
— 
45 
19 
0 57 
24 
1 
43 
174 
24 Tu 
Midsum. Day. Nat. John Baptist. 
29-904 —29.880 89—46 
N.E. 
— 
45 
19 
1 18 
25 
1 
56 
175 
25 W 
Great Knapweed flowers. 
29.979 — 29.907 79—53 
S. 
— 
45 
19 
1 39 
26 
2 
8 
176 
Memory scarcely brings to us a trace of any remembrance previous to 
that when we were used to be placed at a table, to allow the nursery 
household to be at peace, whilst we fumbled over, and dog’s-eared a 
small blaclc-lettered quarto volume, in which there were many rude wood- 
cuts, but one alone of which remained unforgotten, even until manhood. 
It represented a man down on one knee, dibble in hand, preparing to 
plant a vegetable, which, according to the artistic notions then prevalent, 
did not outrage common sense, though of a size beyond all proportion, 
compared with either the dibbler, or his implement. A score of years 
passed by, and then we saw the book again, and now, when two more 
lustrums have gone by, we once again have the book before us, and we 
still wonder, as we wondered as we sat at the old three-clawed nursery 
round oak table, what that plant can be the man is in such vigorous 
earnest about planting. The volume containing this long-remembered 
1 example of dibbling bears this comprehensive title : — 
“ The Gardeners’ Labyrinth , containing a discourse of the Gardeners’ 
life, in the yearly travels to be bestowed on his plot of earth, for the use 
of a garden, with instructions for the choise of seedes, apt times for 
sowing, setting, planting, and watering, and the vessels and instruments 
i serving to that use and purpose : wherein are set forth divers herbers 
(arbours), knotts, and mazes, cunningly handled for the beautifying of 
gardens. Also the physick benefit of each herb, plant, and flower, with 
the virtues of the distilled waters of every of them, as by the sequel may 
further appear. Gathered out of the best approved writers of Gardening, 
Husbandry, and Physick, by Dydymus Mountaine.” This was printed 
in 1577, and rve have vainly endeavoured, both from that, and from a 
later edition, to glean some particulars of the author. This later edition 
bears the date of 1656 , and the title is somewhat altered, beginning by 
stating that it is “ The Gardeners’ Labyrinth, or a new Art of Gardening, 
wherein is laid down new and rare inventions, and secrets of Gardening 
not heretofore known,” then entering into the details as in the old title 
page, but concluding by stating that it is not only collected from 
other authors, but also from “forty years experience in the art of gar¬ 
dening.” The dedication of the first edition to Lord Burghley, is signed 
by Henry Dethicke, and states that he publishes the work in obedience 
to his “ promise plighted unto his friend lately interred,” and those two 
brief sentences embrace all the information we have been able to acquire 
concerning the author. Of the editor of his posthumous publication, we 
have somewhat more information, for he fortunately was a graduate of 
Oxford, and Oxonians fortunately had Anthony Wood for their biographer. 
Yet, this information extends no further than that in 1578, Henry De¬ 
thicke, Master of Arts, was admitted Batchellor of Law, and in 1581, 
Doctor of Law, being at the time Archdeacon and Chancellor of Carlisle. 
In the first edition is given a list of twenty-eight “ authors from whom 
this work is selected.” It includes all the Roman and Geoponic writers, 
concluding with Galen, and there is not a single reference, that we can 
find, intimating a suspicion that directions, suitable for Italy and Greece, 
are not applicable to our more northern latitudes. Yet, there are many 
directions scattered through the pages indicating that the author practiced 
the art on which he undertook to lecture, and revealing that many of our 
practices, only lately much enforced as those adopted by good gardeners, 
are only revivals of ancient gardening. For instance, our use of liquid- 
manure is thus forestalled, as well as our knowledge of the importance of 
using tepid water to our plants. “To the water standing in the sun, if 
the owner or gardener mixt a reasonable quantity of dung, after his 
discretion, this mixture no doubt will be to great purpose, for as much as 
the same gently watered, or sprinkled abroad, procureth a proper 
nourishment to the tender plants and young buds coming up.” 
One of the watering-pots then employed was somewhat peculiar and 
ingenious, being controlled by excluding the atmospheric pressure, and 
is thus described. “The common watering-pot with us for the garden 
beds hath a narrow neck, big belly, somewhat large bottom, and full of 
little holes, with a proper hole formed on the head to take in the water, 
which filled full, and the thumb laid on the hole to keep in (out) the air, 
may on such wise be carried in handsome manner to those places by a 
better help aiding in the turning and bearing upright of the bottom of 
this pot, which needfully require watering.” He then describes “ the 
watering-pot best to be liked, that is much used in the chiefest gardens 
about London,” which is exactly our present watering-pot, excepting 
that it was then made of copper. Mountain also describes the mode of 
irrigating the beds, and gives a drawing both of that and of the plan 
adopted “ by some which use to water their beds with great squirts made 
of tin.” The woodcut shews that the great squirt, resembling one of 
our garden engines, was plunged into a tub of water, and the water 
forced through a rosed pipe by means of the vertical motion of the 
syringe’s plunger. 
Near to the above work, for it was published in the following year, 
stands a volume bearing this title : — 
“ A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden, and necessary instructions 
for the making and maintenance thereof, with notes and rules for re¬ 
formation of all abuses commonly practiced therein, very necessary and 
expedient for all men to have, which in any wise have to do with hops. 
Now newly corrected and augmented by Reynold Scot. 1578.” 
In the dedication to Sir wm. Lovelace, “ Serjeant at the Law,” the 
author asks him to dig “ unto the bowels of the ground, and to seek 
about his house at Beddersden, for a convenient place for a Hop Garden,” 
and to do this promises “ the effect of myne experience,” and there is 
no doubt that he spoke the truth, for it is one of the most original and 
correct books on the culture of any crop that had then issued from the 
press. Indeed, the author, as we shall see presently, was no ordinarily- 
minded man, but one of those, who, in advance of their countrymen, 
point out their errors, and in return are derided, persecuted, and unre¬ 
garded. It was then the common practice to make ale of malt without 
any other addition, and Mr. Scot laboured to show that its unwholesome¬ 
ness and bad-keeping qualities arose from not using hops in its brewing. 
The neglect of their culture, and their consequent dearness, was one of 
the reasons of their not being employed, and he says, energetically—“ It 
grieves me when I see the Flemings envy our practice (in the cultivation 
of the soil), who altogether tend their own profit, seeking to impound us 
in the ignorance of our commodities, to cram us with the wares and fruits 
of their country—sending into Flanders as far as Peppering, for that 
which we may find at home in our backsides.” Backsides, it may be as 
well to explain, meant in those days, the inclosed ground behind a resi¬ 
dence. 
Mr. Scot then proceeds, in a very systematic order, to give good di¬ 
rections for hop-growing, from the time of first planting, to the drying of 
the produce. “ Upon every acre,” he says, “you may erect seven, eight, 
or nine hundred hills ; upon every hill well-ordered, you shall have 31bs. 
of hops at the least. Two pounds and a half of these hops will largely 
serve for the brewing of one quarter of malt. One hundred pounds of 
these hops are commonly worth 26 s. 8d.” It was then a practice “to 
burn the neather part, or great end of the poles, to the end they should 
last or endure the longer,” though Mr. Scot very unwisely condemned 
the procedure as “ unnecessary trouble.” 
We have no space for further extracts, for we must find room to show 
why we have said Mr. Scot was a man of no ordinary mind, and for this 
purpose we need but point to the work he published in 1584, and which 
at the same time shows the great depth of his researches, and the un¬ 
common extent of his learning. It is intitled, “ The Discoverie of Witch¬ 
craft,” and reprinted in 1651, with this title : “ Scot’s Discovery of Witch¬ 
craft ; proving the common opinion of witches contracting with devils, 
spirits, familiars, and their power to kill, torment, and consume the 
bodies of men, women, and children, or other creatures, by diseases or 
otherwise, their flying in the air, Ike., to be but imaginary erroneous 
conceptions and novelties. Wherein also the practices of witehmongers, 
conjurer^ inchanters, soothsayers, also the delusions of astrology, 
alchemy, legerdemain, and many other things, are opened, that have 
long lain hidden, though very necessary to be known for the undeceiving 
of judges, justices, and juries, and for the preservation of poor people, 
&c. With a treatise upon the nature of spirits and devils,” &c. In the 
preface to the reader he declares, that his design in this undertaking was, 
“ first, that the glory of God be not so abridged and abased as to be 
thrust into the hand or lip of a lewd old woman, whereby the work of 
the Creator should be attributed to the power of a creature : secondly, 
that the religion of the gospel may be seen to stand without such peevish 
trumpery : thirdly, that favour and Christian compassion be rather used 
towards these poor souls than rigour and extremity,” &c. 
A doctrine of this nature, advanced in an age when the reality of 
witches was so universally believed, that even the great bishop Jewel, 
touching upon the subject in a sermon before queen Elizabeth, could 
“ pray God they might never practise further than upon the subject,” 
must needs expose the author to animadversions and censure; and, 
accordingly, a foreign divine informs us, though Wood says nothing of it, 
that Scot’s book was actually burnt. We know, however, that it was 
opposed, and, as it would seem, by great authority too ; for James I., in 
the preface to his “ Demonologie,” printed first at Edinburgh, 1597> and 
afterwards at London, 1603, observes, that he “wrote that book chiefly 
against the damnable opinions of Wierus and Scott ; the latter of whom 
is not ashamed.” the king says, “in public print to deny that there can 
be such a thing as witchcraft, and so maintains the old error of the Sad- 
ducees in the denying of spirits.” 
Mr. Scot was a younger son of Sir John Scot, of Scot’s Hall, near 
Smeeth, in Kent, where he was probably born ; and, at about seventeen, 
sent to Hart Hall, in Oxford. He retired to his native country without 
taking a degree, and settled at Smeeth; and, marrying soon after, gave 
himself up solely to reading, to the perusing of obscure authors, which 
had by the generality of scholars been neglected, and at times of leisure to 
husbandry and gardening. 
This sensible, learned, upright, and pious man (for we know that he 
possessed the two first of these qualities, and he is universally allowed to 
have had also the two last) died in 1599, and was buried among his an¬ 
cestors in the church at Smeeth 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations 
during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 72.2°, and 50.4°, respectively. The greatest 
heat, 93°, occurred on the 22d, in 1846, and the lowest cold, 37°, on the 
25th, in 1835. During the period 97 days were fine, and on 71 rain 
fell. 
No. CXLII., Vol. VI. 
