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Lambeth. These identical trees are still in being, and, 
till very lately, were in a most flourishing condition, 
covering a space of fifty feet in height and forty in 
breadth, and bearing delicious fruit There are other 
celebrated fig-trees on record; one of which is shown at 
the manor-house at Mitcham as planted by Archbishop 
Cranmer; another in the Dean’s garden at Winchester, 
near which is an inscription giving this important inform¬ 
ation,— that in the year' 1623, King James “ tasted the 
fruit of tliis tree with much pleasure.” 
In his essay on gardens, Sir W. Temple says, “ Of 
figs there are amongst us the white, the blue, and the 
tawny; the last is very small, bears ill, and I think but a 
bauble ; of the blue there are two or three sorts, but little 
different: of the white, I know but two sorts, and both 
excellent, — one ripe in the end of September, and is 
yellower than the first; but this is hard to be found 
among us, and difficult to be raised, but an excellent 
fruit.” Yet he seems to have mastered the difficulty, 
for he remarks in another place, “ Italians have agreed 
my white figs to be as good as any of that sort in Italy.” 
This fruit, however, appears never to have been con¬ 
genial with the English taste; for, though it takes more 
kindly to our climate than either the vine or the olive, 
certainly than the latter, its cultivation has always been 
