August 7.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
285 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
m' w 
D D 
AUGUST 7—13, 1851. 
Weather near London in 1850. 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
7;Th 
Carline Thistle flowers. 
,29.871—29.863: 77—58 
S.W. 08 
34 a. 4 
37 a. 7 
0 
21 
10 
5 
33 
219 
1 8 F 
Burdock flowers. 
29.733 — 29.659' 75—51 
S.W. 02 
35 
36 
1 
2 
11 
5 
26 
220 
9 S 
Purple Melic Grass flowers. 
129.740 — 29.700 71—51 
S.W. 
37 
34 
1 
51 
12 
5 
18 
221 
10 Sun 
8 Sunday after Trinity. 
29.875 — 29-838 75—58 
S.W. 02 
38 
32 
2 
46 
13 
5 
10 
222 
11 M 
Dog Days end. 
29.823 — 29.722' 74—50 
S.W. j 04 
40 
30 
rises. 
© 
5 
1 
223 
12 To 
|Michaelmas Daisy flowers. 
29.821 — 29.693* 71—46 
S.E. 10 
42 
28 
8 a 
6 
14 
4 
51 
224 
13 W 
Zabrus Gibbus seen. 
29.901 — 29.855 75—47 
N.W. — 
43 
26 
8 
29 
15 
4 
41 
225 
About five miles from Lewes stands what once ranked among “the 
stately Halls of England”—Plumpton Place—and, above all, interesting 
“ to the admirer of patriotic valour and undaunted opposition to tyranny, 
as the spot near which the brave De Montford marshalled his ranks, 
when anticipating an engagement with the fickle Henry III., an engage¬ 
ment which commenced within a mile from the spot, nor ceased until the 
town of Lewes was in flames.” It is not, however, for its association 
with feats of arms and slaughter that it claims our notice and our 
interest here, but as having been the residence of Leonard Mascall. 
He was the proprietor of Plumpton Place in the reign of Henry VIII., 
and it was then surrounded by a deep moat, of which three parts only 
now remain. Into the waters of this moat, tradition informs us, Mas- 
call turned the first carp introduced into England, and that he brought 
them from the Danube, their descendants probably forming a portion of the 
abundant supply the moat still affords to the table of the present owner, 
the Earl of Chichester. The authority for this statement is a rare volume, 
of which the authorship is attributed to Mascall, entitled A Book of 
fishing with hook and line, and of all other instruments thereunto be¬ 
longing. On the title-page, dated 15go, it is said to be “ made by L. 
M.,” and if this be Mascall, he writes thus of the two achievements by 
which he is best known to his countrymen :—“ The carp is a strange and 
dainty fish to take, his baits are not well known, for he hath not long been 
in this realm. The first bringer of them into England (as I have been 
credibly informed), was Master Mascall, of Plumsted, in Sussex, who 
also brought first the planting of the Pippin into England, but now many 
[daces are replenished with Carps, both in pounds and rivers.” 
It is scarcely possible now to determine what the “Pippins” were 
which Mascall introduced, but we can readily understand that the 
successful cultivation of a good desert apple would be considered worthy 
of especial remembrance, when we find that in the preceding reign, that 
of Henry VII., such apples cost from one to two shillings each, a redone 
fetching the highest price. This appears from a MS. signed by the 
monarch himself, and preserved in the Remembrance Office. The Pippin 
introduced by Mascall seems to have been entrusted for cultivation to 
the king’s fruiterer, Richard Harris, for Lambard tells us that this 
fruiterer first planted Cherries, Pippins, and the Golden Itenate, at Ten- 
ham, in Kent. These, however, were only improved varieties, for the 
apple is traceable as cultivated in Britain to the earliest period of which 
we have any written record. We are even fully warranted in believing 
that this fruit was known and cultivated by the Britons before the arrival 
of the Romans upon our shores, for in the Welch, Cornish, Armorican, 
and Irish languages and dialects, it is denominated the Avail or Aball. 
The fruit, therefore, had a native name, from which our present name 
apple is evidently corrupted, and the Hoedui, inhabitants of the modern 
Somersetshire, appear especially to have cultivated this fruit. Their 
chief town even derived its name from the circumstance of its being sur¬ 
rounded by plantations of the apple, for it was known as Avallonia (Apple 
Orchard) when first visited by the Romans. Glastonbury stands upon its 
ancient site. ( Richard’s Chron. 19 .) The cultivation of the apple was 
not confined to our south-western districts, for anotlfer town named after 
it, Avallana, was in the north of England, and in the course of the third 
century we have decisive testimony that the Roman settlers had intro¬ 
duced fresh varieties of this fruit, and that its cultivation had become so 
extended that large apple orchards had been made as far north as the 
Shetland Islands. ( Solinus, cap. xxii.) Traces of ancient orchards are 
still existing in those high northern localities, and one in the Hebrides, 
belonging to the Monastery of St. Colunib, is described by Dr. Walker 
as having existed there, probably, from the 6 th century. {Essays, ii. 5.) 
Others are mentioned by Camden and Leland. It is quite certain that in 
the middle ages the apple had become one of our staple vegetable pro¬ 
ducts, for whenever the chroniclers speak of times of dearth, apples are 
almost always mentioned as articles causing distress by their scarcity, 
and Mascall says :—“ Often it hath been seen, one acre of orchard 
ground worth four acres of wheat ground.” 
The varieties of the apple gradually increased, for Gerard, writing of | 
this fruit in his “Herball,” during 1597, speaks of the infinite varieties I 
of the apple, but seems to attribute the variation much “ to the soil and 
climate.” “Kent,” he goes on to say, “ doth abound in apples of most 
sorts. But I have seen in the pastures and hedge-rows about the grounds 
of a worshipful gentleman dwelling two miles from Hereford, called Mr. 
Roger Bodnome, so many trees of all sorts, that the servants for the most 
part drink no other drink but that which is made of the apples. The 
quantity is such that the parson hath for tithe many hogsheads of syder. 
The hogs are fed with the fallings, which are so many that they will not 
taste of any but the best.” Though the varieties were so numerous, 
Gerard gives drawings of but six, which we may presume were the most 
in favour, and were the Pome-water, Baker’s-ditch, King Apple, Queen¬ 
ing or Queen Apple, Summer Pearmaiu, and Winter Pearmain. Heres- 
bach, who wrote a little earlier (1570), says the “ checfe in price ” were 
the Pippin, the Romct, the Pome-royal, and the Marligold. 
Mascall did not confine his attention to the mere sports of the country, 
for in 1581, he published The Husbandy ordering and governing of 
Poultry, practiced by the learnedest, and such as have been known skil- 
futest in that art and in our time. We regret that we cannot speak of 
the contents of this work, for although it is in the Catalogue of the j 
British Museum, yet it is not to be found now among its riches. In 1 
searching for it we discovered there another work, published in 1580, en¬ 
titled “ A Discourse of Husbandry no less profitable than delectable, de¬ 
claring how by the husbandry, or rather housewifery of Hens, for 
.£’65 1 Is. Id. (500 francs), once employed, one may gain in the year 
4,500 francs, which in English money maketh ^'500 of honest profit, all 
costs and charges deducted. Written in French by Master Prudens 
Choiselat, and lately translated into English by R. E.” The stock from 
which the author proposed to reap such a golden harvest comprised 1,200 
hens, and 120 cocks. 
It is not improbable that Mascall’s was a translation of the same work, 
and for the rest of his publications he was also indebted to our French 
neighbours, who then far excelled us in all the practices of gardening. 
The volume to which we allude issued from the press in 1592, and is en¬ 
titled :— A Book of the Art and Manner how to plant and graff all sorts 
I of trees, how to set stones and sow pepins, to make wild trees to graff 
on, as also remedies and medicines. With divers other new practises, by 
one of the Abbey of S. Vincent in France, practiced with his own hands; 
divided into seven chapiters, with an addition in the end of this book, of 
certain Dutch practices set forth and Englished by Leonard Mascall. 
He begins with this poetical address, entitled “ The Booke to the 
Reader.” 
Each wight that willing is to know 
The way to gralf and plant, 
May here find plenty of that skill, 
That erst hath been but scant. 
To plant or graff in other times 
As well as in the spring 
I teach, by good experience, 
To do an easy thing. 
The pleasure of this thing is great, 
The profit is not small, 
To such men as will practice it 
In things meere natural. 
The poor man may with pleasure find 
Some thing to help his need, 
So may the rich man reap some fruit 
Where erst he had but weed. 
The nobleman that needetli naught, 
May thereby have at will 
Such pleasant fruit to serve his use, 
And give each man his fill. 
The commonwealth cannot but win 
Where each man doth intend 
By skill to make the good fruits more 
And ill fruits to amend. 
Weigh well my words and thou shalt find 
All true that I do tell, 
Mine author doth not write by guess, 
Practice made him excel. 
If thou wilt practice as he did, 
Thou mayest find out much more, 
He hath not found out all the truth 
That nature hath in store. 
The author was evidently a practical man, giving correct directions as 
to the modes and time for grafting, and the stocks to appropriate stocks, 
and treating as “but jests” the assertions that apples and other fruits 
may be grafted on the elm, yet he says—“ Ye may graff the Fig-tree upon 
the Peach-tree or Apricot,” and many others equally at variance with 
modern opinion and experience. On the title-page, also, is a woodcut, 
not giving a very elevated idea of their grafting practice, for there are 
three trees larger and taller than the gardener, the heads of which he has 
sawn off and has inserted in each three scions by cleft-grafting. 
The French author of the work was a Priest, and it was no ill-timed 
conclusion for the work to insert this “ Note for all Graffers and 
Planters.” “ Whensoever ye shall plant or graff, it shall be meet and 
good for you to say as followeth :—Lord God, hear my prayer and let this 
my desire of Thee be heard. In Thy name O Lord we set, plant, and 
graff, desiring that by Thy mighty power they may increase and multiply 
upon the earth, in bearing plenty of fruit, to the profit and comfort of all 
Thy faithful people through Christ our Lord. Amen.” 
The last work published by Mascall appeared in 1590, and is entitled 
On the Government of Cattle, and a few years afterwards he was appointed 
to the office of royal farrier, an appointment in those days not at all 
evidencing that he had any skill in the craft of shoeing or leeching 
horses. It is quite as likely to have been bestowed upon him, because, 
like his royal master, he was a scholar and believed in witches, giving 
rules “ to know the difference between a horse bewitched, and other sore¬ 
ness I ” Of the birth, parentage, and death of Mascall we have been able 
to discover no traces, though the family ranked at an early date among 
the Sussex gentry, as appears from the Herald’s visitations. 
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 '74.4° and 52° respectively The greatest 
heat, 93°, occurred on the-lOtli in 1842, and the lowest cold, 36°, on the 
6th in 1833. During the period 88 days were fine, and on 80 rain fell. 
No. CXUX., Vol. VI. 
