June 26.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
185 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M W 
D D 
1 
JUNE 26 —JULY 2 , 1851. 
Weather near Lo 
Barometer. Thermo. 
1 
N DON IN 1850. 
Wind. Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
26 Th 
Mushrooms seen. 
29.980 —29.919 
75—51 
W. 
_ 
46 a. 3 
19 a. 8 
2 3 
27 
! 2 
21 
1 77 
27 F 
Broom Rape flowers. 
29.969 — 29.913 
87—47 
s.w. 
— 
46 
19 
2 35 
28 
1 2 
34 
178 
28 S 
Queen Victoria’s Coronation 1838. 
30.076 — 29.992 
76—48 
N.W. 
— 
47 
19 
3 13 
29 
2 
46 
179 
2q Sun 
2 Sunday after Tu. St. Peter. 
'30.079 — 29.919 
73—55 
S. 
0.02 
47 
19 
sets. 
© 
2 
59 
180 
si) M 
Hoary Beetle seen. 
'30.156 — 29.916 
63—35 
N.E. 
— 
48 
IS 
9 a 26 
1 
3 
n 
181 
1 To 
Oxford Act. Camb. Com. 
30.160 — 29.921 
79-57 
S.W. 
— 
43 
18 
10a 8 
2 
3 
23 
182 
2 W 
Red Evebright flowers. 
'29.999 — 29.964 
73—55 
w. 
— 
49 
18 
10 41 
3 
! 3 
34 
183 
There was a time, “long, long ago,” when the students of our Inns of 
Court, before they were entrusted to defend the property, the life, or the 
reputation of their fellow-men, had to undergo some qualifying tutorship 
and discipline. In those days of common sense, “after dinner and supper,” 
says a contemporary writer, “ the students and learners in the house, sit 
together by three and three in company, and one of the three putteth 
forth some doubtful question in the law, to the other two of his company, 
and they reason and argue unto it in English, and, at last, he that 
putteth forth the question deelareth his mind, also showing unto them 
the better opinion of his book; and this do the students observe every 
day throughout the year, except on festival days.” Now, this discipline 
did not at all consort with the tastes of two classes of “the apprentices 
of the law;” those against whom the Benchers aimed the order “ that 
there be no drinking of healths, nor any wine or tobacco uttered within 
the house ; ” aud that equally large section who accept, literally, the Lord 
Chancellor’s advice to read Don Quixote, as a preparation for the pro¬ 
fession. Of this last class—those who indulge in any mental occupation 
rather than such as is applicable to the labours of Westminster Hall— 
was Sir Hugh Platt ; he was a lawyer without law, and, consequently, 
it is to be hoped, without practice. In the title page of more than one of 
his books, he is styled “of Lincoln’s Inn, gentleman,” and he probably 
resided in St. Martin’s Lane, for there he tells us was his garden. Yet 
he was as unfixed in his residence, as he was volatile in his schemes and 
inventions, for at one time he had a country house near Copt Hall, in 
Essex ; whilst in 1594, he lived at Bishop’s Hall, in Middlesex, and had 
an estate near St. Albans. We can arrive at no nearer date as to the 
period of his death, than that he was alive in 1608, when some of his 
volumes issued from the press, and was dead when Mr. Charles Belling¬ 
ham edited another, in 1653. This gentleman was probably Sir Hugh’s 
son-in-law, for he speaks of him as “ a great searcher after all sorts of 
knowledge—to whom I had so near alliance,” and with some unction Sir 
Edward Coke considers it “ a special blessing of Almighty God, that few 
or none of the profession die without will, and without child ! ” Be this 
as it may, and without stopping to consider whether if Coke himself was 
blessed with a child, the blessing extended to his management of his off¬ 
spring, we may pass on to consider Sir Hugh Platt as an author, nor need 
this detain us long. Mr. Weston, in his Catalogue of Authors on rural 
affairs, considers Sir Hugh “ the most ingenious husbandman of the age 
he lived in,” which may be consonant with truth, but is a conclusion Mr. 
Weston could not have derived legitimately from Sir Hugh’s publications. 
Those which relate to the culture of the soil are Divers soils for ma¬ 
nuring pasture and arable land, published in 1594. The Jewel House of 
art and nature, in the same year ; his New found art of setting corn, 
without a date; and Florae's Paradise, beautified and adorned with 
sundry sorts of delicate fruits and flowers, by H. P. knight, in 1608. 
He was then residing at Bethnall Green, for his preface is subscribed 
“Bednall Green, near London, this 2d of July, 1608. II. Platt, miles ” 
It is probable that he did not long survive this publication, for he tells 
his readers that though “not knowing the length of my days, nay, 
assuredly knowing that they are drawing to their period,” he resolved to 
make known at once the results of his experience. In this work, and in the 
others we have mentioned, although he gives some experiments of his 
own, yet they are chiefly relations of the experience of others. We re¬ 
strict this criticism to his observations and directions for the cultivation 
of crops, in which the most important points which he urged on the 
grower’s attention were dibbling in the seed, and improving the staple of 
lands by the admixture of soils. The Garden of Eden, of which the first 
part, a mere reprint of Florae's Paradise, appeared in 16.53, and the 
second part in 1660, are only from the posthumous papers of Sir Hugh. 
Besides the above works, he also published in 1603, A new, cheap, and 
delicate fire of Coal-balls, and we find Evelyn saying, “ I send you a short 
treatise concerning Metals of Sir Hugh Platt’s.” Ingenious in all he 
suggested, yet he complains, “ I write to all, but scarcely one believes ; ” 
and he therefore sought another audience in a pocket volume, entitled 
Delights for Ladies to adorn their persons, tables, closets, and distilla- 
tories, with beauties, bouquets, perfumes, and waters. This last of his 
works appeared in 1608 , aud is prefaced with this by no means uupoetical 
address. 
“TO ALL TRUE LOVERS OF ARTE AND KNOWLEDGE. 
Sometimes I write the formes of burning balles, 
Supplying wants that were by woodfals wrought: 
Sometimes of tubs defended so by arte, 
As fire in vaine hath their destruction sought: 
Sometimes I write of lasting beverage, 
Great Neptune and his pilgrims to content; 
Sometimes of food, sweet, fresh, and durable, 
To maintaine life, when all things els were spent; 
Sometimes I write of sundrie sorts of soile. 
Which neither Ceres nor her hand-maides knew. 
I write to all, but scarsly one beleeves, 
Save Dive and Denshire, who have found them true. 
When heavens did mourne in cloudie mantles clad. 
And threatened famine to the sonnes of men : 
When sobbing earth denied her kindly fruit 
To painfull ploughman and his hinds ; even then 
I write relieving remedies of dearth, 
That Arte might helpe where Nature made a fade : 
But all in vain, these new-borne babes of arte 
In their untimely birth straitway do quaile. 
Of these and such-like other new-found skils, 
With painefull pen I whilome wrote at large, 
Expecting still my countries good therein, 
And not respecting labour, time or charge. 
But now my pen and paper are perfum’d, 
I scorne to write with coppress, or with gall; 
Barbarian canes are now become my quils. 
Rosewater is the inke I write withall. 
Of sweetes the sweetest I will now commend, 
To sweetest creatures that the earth doth beare : 
These are the Saints to wliome I sacrifice 
Preserves and conserves both of plum and peare. 
Empaling, now adieu I tush, marchpane wals 
Are strong enough, and best befits our age: 
Let pearcing bullets turne to sugar bals, 
The Spanish feare is husht, and all their rage. 
Of marmalade and paste of Genua, 
Of muslted sugar I intend to write, 
Of leach, of sueket and quidinia. 
Affording to each lady her delight, 
By fancie framde whitin a theorique braine. 
My Muse presents unto your sacred eares. 
To win your favours falsely I disdaine ; 
From painfull practise, from experience, 
A sound, though costly mysterie, I derive : 
With firie flames, in scorching Vulcan’s forge, 
To teach and fine each secret I do strive. 
Accept them well, and let my wearied Muse 
Repose her selfe in ladies laps awhile : 
So, when she wakes, she happily may record 
Her sweetest dreames in some more pleasing stile.” 
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 72.6°, and 50.8°, respectively. The greatest 
heat, 93°, occurred on the 27th, in 1826, and the lowest cold, 37°, on the 
30th, in 1848. During the period 99 days were fine, aud on 69 rain fell. 
We have now visited the Bazaar of all Nations in its 
various stages of development. We have seen it when 
the workmen of every country were busy in the arrange¬ 
ment of their national wares, and we caught many prac¬ 
tical hints, such, as no other gathering could offer, and 
to witness which, heretofore, the globe must have been 
circumnavigated; wo have seen it when crowded with 
none but the aristocracy of Great Britain, and we 
marked how the useful was as much an object of cu¬ 
riosity as the merely gorgeous and ornamental; we 
have seen it when our Queen, on a shilling dag, with 
few hut her personal suite, was pursuing her careful in¬ 
spection, and asking home questions of the exhibitors; 
and we have seen it when seventy-thousand of the work¬ 
ing classes of England were thronged, harmless, joy¬ 
ous, and inquisitive, among its stores of the splendid 
and instructive. We have seen all this, and we rejoiced 
over the deep conviction—which every visit confirmed— 
that not one class alone; not one sect alone; not England 
alone ; not France alone; not nations alone—hut man¬ 
kind together, are advancing in the best of paths—ex¬ 
cellence in the domestic arts, and in peace and good-will 
to all their brethren. 
Much do we rejoice over this grand re-union of the 
No. CXLIII., Yol. VI. 
