181 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 22, 1858. 
seem to have early acquired a knowledge of husbandry. 
It is to this part of the island that Tacitus refers, when 
he says, “ The soil is such, that, except the Olive and 
the Vine, and other vegetables usually raised in hotter 
climes, it readily bears all fruit and grain, and is very 
fertile. Vegetation there is rapid, but ripening is slow; 
and for both these effects there is the same cause—the 
excessive humidity of the soil and air” ( Vita Agric., 
c. xiv,). That it was only the inhabitants on the coast, 
and those who were eitherBelgEe, or descendedfrom that 
nation, who cultivated the soil, is clear, from the state¬ 
ment of Strabo {lib. iv., c. 5), where he says, speaking 
of the aborigines of Britain, “ They resemble the Gauls 
as to manners, if it is not that they are more barbarous, 
and less intelligent than the latter. There are some 
of them so ignorant, that, having milk, they do not 
i know how to make cheese ; and they are equally 
ignorant of the art of gardening, as well as of the 
other operations of agriculture.” 
The crops which would be grown by these early 
cultivators of the soil were, doubtless, the same as 
those which received the attention of the Gauls and 
Belgse, from whom they learned the art of husbandry. 
The Carrot grows wild in Britain, as it does in France ; 
from the latter it was imported into Italy, being only 
improved by cultivation ; at least, such is the inference 
of the best critics upon this passage in Pliny:—“There 
is a fourth kind of Parsnip, by our people (the Romans) 
j it is called Gallica, while the Greeks, who have dis¬ 
tinguished four varieties of it, give it the name of 
Daucus .” Unless it had been employed by the natives, 
we can scarcely conceive so useless a weed, as it is in a 
wild state, would have gained the attention of the 
Roman legionaries. Turnips were particularly abun¬ 
dant in Gaul; so extensively indeed were they culti¬ 
vated as to be given to cattle. “ Turnips,” says Colu¬ 
mella {lib. ii., c. 10), “ are food not only for man, but 
for oxen also, especially in Gaul, where this kind of 
j root affords nourishment for the cattle in winter.” 
We quote these facts, because the practices of the 
Gauls must have been known to the Cantii, or in¬ 
habitants of Kent, whom Csesar especially describes as 
more advanced than the other Britons in the habits of 
civilised life, and as little differing from the people of 
Gaul. 
We have, however, direct evidence of the similarity 
i of their practices in cultivating the soil, in this notice 
i of their use of marl as a fertiliser. Pliny says {lib. 
\ xvii., c. 4),—“ It is only right that I should be rather 
exact in noticing this marl, which tends so greatly to 
! enrich the soil of the Gallic provinces and the British 
isles. Another kind is the white chalk, used for clean¬ 
ing silver (modern whiting); it is taken from pits 
sunk a considerable depth in the ground; it is in 
Britain more particularly that this chalk is employed. 
The good effects of it are found to last full eighty 
I years, and there is no instance known of a farmer 
| putting it twice on the same land during his life.” 
If we turn to what we can glean, relative to one of 
the most important of our hardy fruits, we are justified 
j in concluding, even from the etymology of its name, 
that it was cultivated by the Britons before the 
arrival of the Romans. 
In the Welch, Cornish, Armorican, and Irish lan¬ 
guages, or dialects, the Apple was denominated the 
Avail or Aball. In Welch, the wild Crab tree is still 
called Afalwydden, and in the Gaelic, Abbol-Jiadhaich. 
The Hedui, who dwelt in the modern Somersetshire, 
j appear then, as now, particularly to have cultivated 
| this fruit, and their town, which stood upon the site 
' of the present Glastonbury, was known, when the 
Romans first visited it, by the name of Avallonia 
(Apple Orchard).— {Richard of Cirencester , lib. i., 
e. 6, s. 14). 
We have seen how the inhabitants of Kent ap¬ 
proached in their manners and practices their conti¬ 
nental neighbours, and it is very improbable, that they 
did not thence derive any improved object of culti¬ 
vation. Kent has immemorially been celebrated for its 
orchards, and we may conclude that these contained 
the Belgic varieties of the Apple. That the Belgse 
had such varieties, we have the testimony of Pliny, 
who says {Natural History, lib. xv., c. 14), “ The 
Spayed Apple ( Spadonium ) of the Belgee is so nick¬ 
named from its having no pips.” Dalechamps thinks 
that this was one of the Apples still known in France as 
the Passe Pomme ; but there is no sufficient reason for 
such an opinion ; some of the varieties of Apples so 
called have an abundance of well-developed pips, and 
there are others in which they are few in number, but 
none are absolutely abortive. There are, however, 
Apples in which the seeds are wholly abortive, and 
without any core at all; but we would look with sus¬ 
picion on any attempt to identify the fruits of the 
ancients with the varieties now in cultivation. 
Other fruits, as the Pear, Damson, &c., being known 
by names evidently derived from the Roman appella¬ 
tions, we, on the other hand, are induced to consider 
as being introduced to the Britons from Italy. The 
same observation may apply to the Rose, and other in¬ 
habitants of the flower garden, of which there is little 
doubt the Britons were ignorant before their introduc¬ 
tion by the Romans. The kitchen-garden is similarly 
indebted for most, though not all, of its inhabitants. 
The Cabbage, or Kale, tribe is an example of the ex¬ 
ceptions. Kavitch is the name in the Cornish dialect, 
and Cawl-ivort is mentioned in the oldest Anglo-Saxon 
MSS. They are names not derived from the Latin. 
Of the Roman pleasure grounds, during the decline 
of the empire, we have the most ample accounts. 
Highly polished as were the citizens of the then 
Mistress of the World, it was in this department of 
horticulture their luxury and taste was displayed, and 
the most poetical subject here proffered itself to the 
pen of the historian and man of letters. To the Briton, 
just emerging from his barbarism, that which was most 
useful seemed most worthy of attention; hence, the 
fruit garden became his first particular care, and it is 
of this, in the earliest periods of which records exist, 
that we have the most particular, though, at the same 
time, scanty notice. 
Tacitus, as already noticed, informs us that all fruit 
trees succeeded in Britain, except such as required a i 
warmer climate. It is evident, from this cursory re¬ 
mark, that the Romans began immediately their : 
endeavours to improve the place of their settlement, j 
even before they had penetrated into the southern and 
more mild districts of the island ; or before its climate 
could be ameliorated by the removal of exuberant 
forests, and accompanying marshes, the never-failing 
deteriorators of the climate of the country in which 
they abound. That they did begin improving their 
new settlement, is proved by the restimony of Pliny, 
who informs us that they introduced Cherries into our 
island b.c. 42. His words are :—“ Cherries were not 
in Italy before the Mithridatic victory of L. Lucullus. ! 
He first brought them to Rome, out of Pontus, in the 
year (of the city) 680, and in 120years they have crossed 
the ocean, until they have reached even Britain.” 
But although Britain was first visited by the 
Romans fifty-five years before the Christian era, and, j 
although it is thus evident how much they were alive 
to the improvement of this, in common with all other 
nations, over which they had spread their conquering 
arms, yet it was not until the time of Agricola, a.d. 78, 
that the devastations and turmoils attendant upon a 
war of subjugation, had ceased so far as to enable them 
to win the attention of the natives, with success, to the 
