277 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 31, I860. 
lowisli clots, and thickly covered with blue bloom. Stalk 
an inch long, inserted in a small, narrow cavity. Flesh 
orange, with a rich, angary, and delicious flavour, sepa¬ 
rating from the stone. Shoots downy. Ripe in the 
middle of September. 
(To he continued.) 
ORCHARD-HOUSE TREES. 
I thank my friend Mr. Beaton for giving, in page 226, his 
opinion about spongioles. What an innocent I am ! 
I never heard or read about the “ old doctrine of the 
annual decay of spongioles;” but having, for some years past, 
observed, in top dressing my Peaches, Nectarines, and Tines 
late in autumn and winter, that nearly all the fibrous roots of 
the preceding year were invariably dead and decayed, I came to 
the conclusion that “ seeing is believing,” and that orchard-house 
trees and Vines in pots really do lose annually in winter the 
larger portion of the small feeding-roots (call them what you 
will) they have made the preceding summer. Moreover, I have, 
when I have seen thousands of these dead and dying roots, 
thought of their “ formation, use, and application,” and have 
considered their dying annually a wise ordination. 
I took my description of the “ Houses for the Million ” from a 
gentleman who had seen them, I think, at the Crystal Palace. 
They will, doubtless, be found convenient, but they are not cheap. 
A new method of making lights, very recently invented, will in 
that respect throw them into the shade.—T. R. 
SOME EVENTS OF THE OLDEN TIME. 
It is somewhat difficult to understand how human ingenuity 
could discern that the growth of Popery can be dependent upon 
the growth of Potatoes; yet that they were so associated will 
appear in the course of the following gleanings. 
Potatoes, about the close of the reign of Elizabeth, were im¬ 
ported in considerable quantities from Spain and the Canary 
Islands, but were used as a confection rather than as a nourishing 
vegetable. Thus in the account-books of the borough of Lyme, 
in Dorsetshire, when one Mr. Ellesdon was Mayor, in 1595, there 
is this entry :— 
“ Given to Sir George Trenehard a fair box of marmelnde 
gilted, a barrel of conserves, orange and lemonds, and Potates. 
22 s. 10c?.” 
Eighteen years later they were still rarities, for in 1618 they 
sold for 2s. per pound. 
“Then they were a luxury, and so continued till ninety years 
ago, when in 1765 Lord Sheffield bought some, and soon after 
farmers began to plant them in the fields. This novelty experienced 
the usual fate—viz., that of exciting prejudice against it. At an 
election at Lewes, Potatoes shared with popery the indignation 
of the people, and “ No Popery! No Potatoes! ” was the popular 
cry. One Moore, an Irishman, planted the first field of Potatoes 
in Devon, at Poltimore, where he resided. A few farmers around 
Chard, in Somersetshire, followed this example about 1784. 
Potatoes excited so much prejudice in France, from a belief they 
would bring back leprosy once more, that the growing crop re¬ 
quired to be watched for pi’otection. So late as 1816 the cook 
of a large establishment at Valognes, Normandy, did not know 
how to dress a present of that root sent from Guernsey.” 
Oranges are said to have been first imported into England from 
Spain during the reign of Edward I.; but in 1595 they still con¬ 
tinued scarce, for then Wheat was 9.?. per bushel. Mr. Ellesdon, 
the Mayor, already mentioned, gave “ to my Lord Marquis of 
Winchester,” then Lord-Lieutenant of Dorset , “ Oranges and 
Lemons, at 6s. the hundred.” In 1675, Mr. Walter Tucker, then 
Mayor of Lyme, at a dinner given to the Judges on the circuit, 
paid 2s. for fifty Oranges. 
In the archives of Southampton, during Edward Ill.’s reign, 
we find mention of “ Saucers,’' being persons who dealt in 
“ herbs and vegetables.” These when served with meat at dinner 
are still called ‘‘sauce” in many parts of England. We believe 
the word to be derived from the Saxon sivees, pleasant, and 
especially applied to food ; sweesendu , was the family diet 
The freedom of commercial intercourse so zealously striven 
for in the present reign was viewed as one of the greatest evils 
two centuries since. Even one county of England would not 
allow its produce to bo sold into another county without leave 
previously obtained from the local authorities. For example :— 
“ Dorsetshire butter, which retains its reputation, could not be 
sent to our countrymen residing in other counties who wanted 
some of it except in defined quantities, and by parties duly 
licensed at the Quarter Sessions for that purpose. 
“ Such a license as the following is most valuable to sceptics 
who might question the possibility of such a state of things 
having ever obtained. This entry, made at the Michaelmas 
Session held at Bridport in 1631, will carry conviction with it:— 
“ ‘For as much as a letter hath been directed unto this Court 
from the maior of the cittie of Exon, therein prayin that this 
Court would license one Humfrey Perry, of that citie, to buy 
butter within this county for the provision of the same: this 
Court doth therefore give way that a license be granted unto the 
said Humfrey Perry, for the weekly buying in this countie two 
horse-loade of butter, and to carry the same unto the said citie 
for the provision of the same.’ 
“ It is amusing to read how powerful an effect the eloquent 
letter of the Mayor of Exeter produced. The authorities ‘gave 
way,’ and the ‘ outside barbarians,’ as the natives of the Dorset 
‘ inside flowery land ’ might then have styled them, had their 
two pack-horses with butter in their dorsers.” 
We often hear complaints made of the prices charged for 
plants and trees by nurserymen—a complaint most unreasonable 
when the years of culture, the expenses of importation, and cost¬ 
liness of garden premises are considered. The prices were much 
higher when we consider the relative value of money in the 
seventeenth century. Here is an example— 
TREES FOR A GARDEN IN THE REIGN 
OF CHARLES II. 
s. cl. 
Apricock tree .... 
. . l 
8 
Orange tree .... 
. 0 
8 
Pair royal Windsor Pear tree 
. . i 
8 
2 Kentish Pippins 
, 2 
4 
2 Flanders Cherries 
. . 2 
6 
26 roots of Provence Roses 
. 5 
6 
8 young Apple trees 
. . 7 
0 
A Mulberry tree 
. 4 
0 
Peach ..... 
. 2 
6 
Medlar .... 
. 1 
0 
2 dozen Tulips .... 
. . 8 
0 
Even at that period, and much nearer to our own times, herbs 
growing in our own gardens were preferred before foreign drugs, 
as sanatory remedies. 
“Before the introduction of Turnips, Potatoes, &c., the 
scurvy was very often felt by even the better classes. There were 
cases of that affection at the time the Potato disease raged from 
want of vegetables. 
“ Scurvy grass, which cost by the peek Id., and diet drinks, so 
high as 13s. 6d., appear in diaries and account-books. 
“The power of herbs against the pestilence or plague itself 
was declared to be sufficient when these were administered in a 
drink. The patient was to take : — 
Vedervoy . Featherfew. 
Matfelon . Black Knapweed, Centaurea nigra. 
Mogworte . Mugwort, Wormwood, Artemisia vulgaris. 
Solyge . Sage. (Parkinson in his “ Theatrum,” 
says the French called it Saulge.) 
Scabyos . Devil’s-bit, Scahiosa succisa. 
Avensc . Avens, Geum urhanum. 
“ These were to be mixed in equal proportions, washed, and 
bruised with stale ale, and six spoonfuls taken at a time. If 
taken in time we are assured “hyt chal distroye the coropcion 
and safe the man or the woman.”* 
So powerful and universal were the healing qualities attributed 
to Sage, that a Latin verse, perhaps satirical, became proverbial, 
inquiring “ Why need man die whilst he had Sage (Salvia) in his 
garden ? ” It might be a pun upon the Latin name Salvia. Be 
this as it may, it is quite certain that extraordinary medicinal 
virtues were attributed to this herb. We have before us a volume 
of 414 pages, written by Christian Francis Paulinus, and pub¬ 
lished in 1688, entitled “Sacra ITerba, seu nobilis Salvia, &c., 
selectisque remediis, et propriis observationibus conspersa.” 
(The sacred Herb, or noble Sage, with select remedies and appro¬ 
priate observations interspersed.) Nearly 400 pages arc devoted 
to the “ Medicochymico-pharmaceutico-therapeutico ” uses of 
Sage. 
* Bury M S., published by the Bury and West Suffolk Archaeological 
Institute. 
