AN OLD LONDON GARDENER.—I.
THE frequenters of the Holborn Restaurant are not, perhaps, aware that they are recruiting their jaded energies near the site of some of the famous old London gardens. Yet so it Some ninety years later, John Gerard, taking a fancy to the quiet neighbourhood beyond the City walls, had laid out his " physic-garden " near the banks of the little brook, which, wan- dering down its hollow way to join the larger stream of the Fleet, had in Elizabeth's time given the name of Holborn to that locality. The Cheshire doctor had already become a man of note. In 1597 he tells us that he had for twenty years superintended the stately gardens of his patron, Sir William Cecil. The Lord High Treasurer, like so many other noblemen, had his town house in the Strand, its memory being preserved (as we learn from Isaac Taylor) by Burleigh Street, Exeter Hall, and Exeter Street. The supervision of Lord Burghley's spacious pleasaunce, and the management of his own professional garden, must have furnished abundant occupation to the worthy doctor, and we are therefore filled with astonishment in contemplating the great work of his life. That ponderous quarto, with its thirteen hundred and ninety-two pages and more than two thousand illustrations, entitled, "The Historic of Plants : in Three Books," was published in 1597, and dedicated to Gerard's "singular good Lord and Master, Sir William Cecil, Knight." The work was only just completed in time, for Burghley died the following year. As we turn over the yellow pages of one of the first editions we marvel at the patient labour involved. The book, though styled a "Herbal," is a comprehensive history of plants, and, beyond its professional value, possesses great interest of another kind. Scattered throughout its pages are allusions to people and places curiously illustrative of the times. We propose to call attention, first, to the notices of localities in and around London where wild flowers were found in that day, such notices throwing light upon the size of the city and the rural aspect of the suburban places ; and, secondly, to the accounts of flowers introduced into English gardens three hundred years ago.
We will begin with the Wall Pennywort, not now a common plant. Gerard, however, had not far to seek it. "It groweth," he says," upon Westminster Abbay, over the doore that leadeth from Chaucer his tombe to the olde palace." The Whitlow Grass "groweth plentifully vpon the bricke wall in Chauncerie lane, belonging to the Earle of Southampton." Think also of what these few words convey. Writing of the Wild Clary, Gerard says :—" It groweth wild in diners barren places, especially in the fields of Holburne, neere vnto Graies Inne !" Here is another pleasant glimpse. Herb Two-pence, the Yellow Money- wort, was to be found "vpon the bancke of the riuer of Thames, right against the Queenes palace of Whitehall." Of a certain Crowfoot, the doctor says :—" It chanced that walking in the fielde next vnto the Theater by London, in company of a worshipfull marchant, named master Nicholas Lete, I founde one of this kinde there." Could this theatre be other than the Globe built in 1594 ? What suggestions reach us through the following allusions to Gerard's suburban rambles ! He is discoursing of Hedge Hyssop :—" I found it growing vpon the bog or marrish ground at the further end of Hampsteede heath, and vpon the same heath towards London, neere vnto the head of the springs that were digged for water to be conueied to London, 1590, attempted by that carefull citizen, Sir John Hart Knight, Lord Maior of London : at which time myselfe was in his Lordship's company, and viewing for my pleasure the same goodly springs, I found the said plant." Those plants which, according to our author, joy "in watrie ditches," must have been easily studied without a long journey. The Frog Bit he found "in all the ditches about Saint George his fieldes, and in the ditches by the Thames side neere to Lambeth marsh." The gloomy haunt of the White Saxifrage might be passed over were it not for the interest it possesses for students of Chaucer. In Gerard's time it grew "in a fielde on the left hand of the highway as you go from the place of execution, called St. Thomas Waterings vnto Dedford by London." Did not St. Thomas Waterings commemorate one of the stations used by the Canterbury Pilgrims P We now come to the second point, the notices of flowers introduced into English gardens in Gerard's time, and as we read those words which so continually conclude the paragraph headed "The Place," "this plant grows also in my garden," we wonder what must the dimensions of his herbarium have been ! Here is the history of our queenly White Lily. It is "called Lilium album Bizantinum, in English the White Lillie of Constantinople ; of the nukes themselves, Sultan Zambach, with this addition, that it might be the better knowen which kinde of Lillie they ment, when they sent rootes of them vnto these countries." The variety of lilies then known surprises us ; many came to Gerard through his "loning friend, master James Garret, apothecarie in London." To the Turks, also, we owe the Crown Imperial, and that gorgeous denizen of our gardens, the Red Lily. "This plant groweth wilde in the fieldes and mountaines many daies iournies beyonde Constantinople. From thence it was sent, among many other bulbs of rare and daintie flowers, by Master Habran, ambassador there, vnto my honorable good lord and master, the Lord Treasurer of England, who bestowed it vpon me for my garden." The Day Lily, the Red Gladiolus, or Corn-flag, the Fritillary (called also by Gerard "The Ginnie-hen flower) were all known to him, while the varieties of daffodils, squills, hyacinths, and anemones are wonderful to read of. "The double white daffodil" was sent to Lord Burghley from Constantinople ; other bulbous plants came from the " lowe Countries, as also from France." The " rush-daffodill " (rush- leaved jonquil P) grew "wide in the waterie places of Spaine." From three kinds of tulips we learn that "all other kinds do proceed," tulips being then the peculiar study of Master James Garret, who had, by careful sowing of seed, procured an infinite variety.
Nor had the tables of our Elizabethan ancestors any lack of fruits and vegetables. Several kinds of peaches are enumerated in the " Historie of Plants," as well as apricots, green figs, mul- berries, quinces, many varieties of apples (amongst them the " Pearemaine "), cherries, pears, medlars, &c. Among vegetables we naturally search eagerly for the mention of the potato. Gerard describes two species. The first, he says, grows in India, Barbary, and Spain, of which "I planted diners rootes (that I bought at the exchange in London) in my garden, where they flourished vntill winter, at which time they perished and rotted." "The nutriment," he tells us, "is, as it were, a meane betweene flesh and fruit." The other kind (Battata Virginiana) has a still greater interest for us, though we look in vain for its association with Sir Walter Raleigh. Gerard received his roots from "Virginia, otherwise called Norembega," and they grew and prospered in his garden. Both kinds of potato are either " rosted in the embers, or boiled and eaten with oile, vineger, and pepper," and they "may serue as a ground or foundation, whereon the cunning confectioner or sugar-baker may work and frame many comfortable delicate conserues !" Though ignoring the connection between the great colonist and the potato, Gerard does not fail to give him due honour. Witness this quaint and suggestive passage in another place in which he describes the Indian Swallow-wort :—" It groweth, as before rehearsed, in the countries of Norembega, and now called Virginia by the H. Sir Walter Raleigh, who bath bestowed great summes of monie in the disconerie thereof, where are dwelling at this present Englishmen, if neither vntimely death by murdering, or pestilence, corrupt sire, or some other mortall sicknes bath not destroied them."
We close the ancient quarto, and the vision that has been with us fades away. The gallant courtiers in ruff and doublet, the stately dames in brocade and farthingale, grow dim. We listen no longer to the talk in those pleached alleys of the books which this year of grace, 1597, has given to the world—illustrious contemporaries of "The Historic of Plants "—that volume of essays from the hand of Francis Bacon, that mournful tragedy of Borneo and Juliet, the work of the Warwickshire play-actor. The subtle fragrance of Provence roses, of eglantine, clove gilliflowers, sweet basil, and marjoram, forsakes us, and on the summer air ftom across the river dies away the evening chime from the bells of St. Mary of the Ferry.
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