garden at Lambeth," Gibson observes, "has many curiosities in it, and perhaps the finest striped holly hedge in England. He has many myrtles, not the greatest, but cut in the most fanciful shapes that are anywhere to be seen. He has a walk arched over with trelliswork, and covered with vines, which, with others running on most of his walls, without prejudice to his lower trees, yield him a deal of wine." The commercial gardeners at this time (1691) are thus enumerated by Gibson :-London and Wise had the only extensive nursery; Versprit excelled in hollies and "greens." Ricketts and Pearson were small cultivators for sale. The latter had "abundance of cypresses, which, at 3 ft. high, he sold for 4d. apiece; and, being moderate in his prices, and very honest in his dealings, he got much chapmanry." Darby, at Hoxton, is said "to be master of several curious greens that other sale gardens want." Darby is said to have raised many striped hollies by inoculation; and Captain Foster (who appears also to have sold or exchanged his garden productions) to have propagated the same plants by grafting. Darby also kept a book of dried specimens of plants, to show to his customers. Clements, at Mile End, had many curious "greens," and, the year that Gibson visited him (1691), made "white muscadine, and white Frontignac wine," better than any he (Gibson) had elsewhere tasted. It is worthy of remark, that all these "sale gardeners" had greenhouses, and that they piqued themselves principally upon their plants in pots and on their florists' flowers. It is singular that Gibson does not speak of the Bishop of London's garden, though it must have been in its state of greatest perfection at the time he wrote; and also that he barely mentions the nursery of Messrs. London and Wise, which, Evelyn informs us, in the preface to his translation of Quintinye's Complete Gardener, published in 1701, "far surpassed all the others in England put together." The Brompton Park Nursery may, indeed, be considered as the first establishment of the kind which became celebrated. It was founded by Messrs. Cooke, Lucre, London, and Field, in 1681. Lucre, or Lukar, was gardener to the Queen Dowager at Somerset House; Field was gardener to the Earl of Bedford, at Bedford House in the Strand; Moses Cooke was gardener to the Earl of Essex, at Cashiobury, and author of a work entitled The Manner of raising Forest Trees, &c., 4to, 1676. George London was gardener to Bishop Compton, and afterwards chief gardener first to William and Mary, and afterwards to Queen Anne. Lukar died in 1686: Cooke and Co. succeeded. Cooke retired in 1689, when Henry Wise, who had been an apprentice to Rose, the royal gardener, as London had also been, became the sole proprietor. In 1693-4, he entered CHAP. II. into a new partnership with London. At that time the grounds This nursery passed, succesexceeded 100 acres in extent. sively, from London and Wise, in 1701, to Swinhoe; in 1714, to Smith and Co.; in 1756, to Jeffries; in 1788, to Jeffries and Gray; at the death of Jeffries, to Gray and Wear; afterwards to Gray, Wear, and Co.; then to Gray, Son, and Brown; and, lastly, to Gray and Son, in whose occupation it still (1835) is. In the time of The grounds are now reduced to thirty acres. London and Wise, it was thus spoken of by Evelyn, in the preface before alluded to:-" The proprietors, Mr. George London, chief gardener to their majesties, and his associate, Mr. Henry Wise, are recommended for their assiduity and industry; they have not made gain the only mark of their pains, but with extraordinary and rare industry endeavoured to improve themselves in the mysteries of their profession; from the great advantages and now long experience they have had, in being employed in most of the celebrated gardens and plantations which this nation abounds in, besides what they have learned abroad, where horticulture is in high reputation.' He adds, "the grounds and gardens of noblemen and persons of quality, which they have planted ab origine, and which are still under their care and attention, justify what I have said in their behalf." Bowack, who wrote an account of the parish of Kensington in 1705, says, "that some affirm that if the stock of these nurseries were valued at one penny per plant, the amount would exceed 40,000l." London.and Wise, in 1694, emThe foreployed twenty men in their nursery and two women. man had 12s. a week, the other men had 8s., and the women 4s. Botanic gardens began to be established in England about the middle of this century; and they contributed to the introduction of hardy trees and shrubs, as well as of herbaceous plants and exotics. The oldest botanic gardens in England are those of Oxford and of Chelsea. Evelyn visited the latter in 1685, and Many mentions, as rarities, a tulip tree and a tea shrub. private botanic gardens were also founded during this century, Among these were the gardens of Ray, in Essex; of the Duchess of Beaufort, at Badmington, in Gloucestershire; of Sir Hans Sloane, at Chelsea; of Dr. Uvedale, at Enfield, &c. The catalogues of these gardens, in the libraries of the Linnæan Society and of the British Museum, show that they contained various foreign trees and shrubs. Dr. Uvedale's garden, Giband orange son informs us, "chiefly excelled in exotic greens trees, for which he had six or seven houses or roomsteads." Gibson adds, "that he understood the culture of particular plants, but had no taste for the disposition of his garden.' learn from Miller, that Dr. Uvedale had a fine cedar tree, which, E We in 1788, was 45 ft. 9 in. high, though 9 ft. had been broken off by the wind. Lysons saw this tree in 1809, and found the girt of it, at 3 ft. 10 in. from the ground (not being able to measure lower, on account of a seat which was fixed round it), to be 13 ft. 1 in. Dr. Uvedale was born in 1642; he became master of the grammar school at Enfield about 1670, and died in 1722. He is said to have devoted so much of his time to his garden, as to be threatened with being removed from his situation by the authorities who had appointed him. Dr. May, the present master of the grammar school at Enfield, says there is a tradition that one of Dr. Uvedale's scholars, who travelled, had a commission from the doctor to bring a plant of the cedar of Lebanon from Mount Lebanon, and that he brought the tree now standing. Dr. May had it measured in 1821, for the History of Enfield; and, the tree being in a state of decay, its dimensions at the present time (January, 1835) are much the same as they were then. The tree lost one of its leading branches in November 1794, previously to which its general form was that of an inverted cone. It was then, and is now, 64 ft. 8 in. high; the girt at one foot from the ground, in 1821, was 19 ft. 9 in.; and the girt is now (1835) 15 ft. 8 in., at 3 ft. from the ground; at 6 ft., 14 ft. There is a portrait of the Enfield cedar in Strutt's Sylva Britannica, and the measurements, as taken for us, with the kind permission of Dr. May, will be found in detail in the Gardener's Magazine, vol. xi. The trees and shrubs introduced or cultivated by the curators or proprietors of these different gardens, and others which we have mentioned, will be found in the list which concludes this section, in which the names of Dr. Compton, Gerard, L'Obel, Parkinson, Tradescant, Sutherland, Uvedale, and Sir Hans Sloane, will be found frequently to occur. In Scotland there appears to have been some taste for botany towards the end of this century, as Patrick Murray had a collection of a thousand plants at Livingstone, and Dr. Balfour founded the botanic garden of Edinburgh in 1680. The curator of the botanic garden at Edinburgh, James Sutherland, was an excellent botanist, and by his correspondents introduced many foreign plants into the garden. It is remarkable that in this garden the cedar of Lebanon was introduced in 1683, the same year in which it is mentioned as having been planted by Bishop Compton at Fulham, and in the Chelsea Botanic Garden. In Ireland, Sir Arthur Rawdon, struck with the collection of plants in the garden of his countryman, Dr. (afterwards Sir) Hans Sloane, of Chelsea, sent a gardener, who had been a collector for Sir Hans Sloane, to Jamaica, who brought back a shipload of plants to Moira, where various hardy foreign trees were introduced, and kept in good order for several years. |