SHAKESPEARE'S GARDEN 
3 
rare trees ? Indeed, if tradition speaks aright, we 
owe more than one of our wild plants to Roman 
influence. The Roman nettle is an example, the 
most virulent of all its order in these islands, a 
plant grown by them as a pot-herb, and still to be 
found here and there lingering on the old site. 
In the savage life of the Northern barbarians 
there was but little time or space for floriculture, 
and many a flower died out, and even some of the 
more useful edible plants, under their rule, although 
in their own mythology the tree Yggdrasil took 
no insignificant place. With the Norman Conquest 
came the dawn of modern gardening: there is a 
pretty legend quoted by the talented author of 
“A History of English Gardening/'* telling how 
the Red King visited Romsey Abbey ostensibly to 
see the roses. Within the walls of the religious 
Houses gardening thus early found a home, and it 
was a matter of necessity to the community that the 
hortulanus should provide vegetables in plenty for 
the table, and herbs both for medicine and flavouring ; 
and to these fruits were added, and flowers, also 
some brought, perchance, through the constant 
interchange of brethren and pilgrims both at home 
and abroad. And this importation increased yet 
more when once the great trading companies of 
the Hanseatic League and the Staple of Calais 
began to export and import their many wares. 
Yet we have very little left us either in illumina¬ 
tions or elsewhere to show how a medieval garden 
was arranged. Blomfieldf gives a plate from Harl. 
MS. 4425 of a garden, which is drawn divided 
into two plots by a fence with a high gateway in 
the centre, and entirely surrounded by a wall with 
* “A History of Gardening in England,” by the Hon. Alicia 
Amherst. London, 1896. 
f “The Formal Garden in England.” 
1—2 
