Part 2
Lord Weymouth; Dr. Sherard of Eltham; Collinson, "to whose name is attached all that respect which is due to benevolence and virtue;" Grindal, Bishop of London, who cultivated with great success the vine and other productions of his garden at Fulham; Compton, Bishop of London, eminent, as Mr. Falconer in his Fulham observes, for his unbounded charity and beneficence, and who was so struck with the genius, the learning, and probity of Mr. Ray, that he was almost at the entire charge of erecting the monument to him; the Earl of Scarborough, an accomplished nobleman, immortalized by the enchanting pen of Pope, and the fine pen of Chesterfield; the Earl of Gainsborough; the great Chatham, whose taste in the embellishment of rural nature has been exultingly acknowledged by Mr. Walpole, and by George Mason;[16] with numerous other men of rank and science.[17] These have highly assisted in elevating gardening to the rank it has long since held, and has allured multitudes to this delightful science:--no wonder, when _Homer_ =writeth how= _Laertes_ =the olde man, was wont with his travaile in his Orchards, to drive from his minde the sorrow hee tooke for the absence of his sonne=. When old Gerarde asks his _courteous and well-willing readers_--"whither do all men walk for their honest recreation, but where the earth hath most beneficially painted her face with flourishing colours? and what season of the year more longed for than the spring, whose gentle breath enticeth forth the kindly sweets, and makes them yield their fragrant smells?" When the Lord Chancellor Bacon declares a garden "is the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man:" and when this wonderfully gifted man thus fondly dwells on part of its allurements;--"the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music), than in the hand; therefore, nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air; the flower, which above all others yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violet;[18] next to that is the musk rose, then the strawberry-leaves, dying with a most-excellent cordial smell; then sweet briar, then wall-flowers, which are very delightful to be set under a parlour, or lower chamber window; but those which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three--that is, burnet, wild thyme, and water-mints; therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread."[19] Or when Mr. Evelyn, in the joy of his enthusiasm, exultingly transposed from Virgil:--
O fortunatos nimium, bona si sua norint _Horticulas_!
and who declared, that the employ and felicity of an excellent gardener was preferable to all other diversions. When Mr. Addison says that a garden "fills the mind with calmness and tranquillity, and lays all its turbulent passions at rest." When Sir William Temple (who infused into his writings the graces of some of the best writers of ancient times), thus allures his readers: "_Epicurus_, whose admirable wit, felicity of expression, excellence of nature, sweetness of conversation, temperance of life, and constancy of death, made him so beloved by his friends, admired by his scholars, and honoured by the Athenians, passed his time wholly in his garden; there he studied, there he exercised, there he taught his philosophy; and indeed no other sort of abode seems to contribute so much to both the tranquillity of mind, and indolence of body, which he made his chief ends. The sweetness of air, the pleasantness of smells, the verdure of plants, the cleanness and lightness of food, the exercises of working or walking; but above all, the exemption from cares and solitude, seem equally to favour and improve both contemplation and health, the enjoyment of sense and imagination, and thereby the quiet and ease both of the body and mind." When the industrious Switzer says:--"'Tis in the quiet enjoyment of rural delights, the refreshing and odoriferous breezes of garden air, that the deluge of vapours, and those terrors of hypochondraism, which crowd and oppress the head are dispelled." When the industrious and philosophic Bradley observes, that "though the trouble of the mind wears and destroys the constitution even of the most healthful body, all kinds of gardens contribute to health." When Pope,[20] who loved to breathe the sweet and fragrant air of gardens, in one of his letters says, "I am in my garden, amused and easy; this is a scene where one finds no disappointment." When that "universally esteemed and beloved man," the Prince de Ligne, declares, "Je voudrois échauffer tout l'univers de mon gôut pour les jardins. Il me semble qu'il est impossible, qu'un mechant puisse l'avoir. Il n'est point de vertus que Je ne suppose à celui qui aime à parler et à faire des jardins. Péres de famille, inspirez la jardinomanie à vos enfans.[21] When a taste for gardening (as Mr. Cobbet observes) "is much more innocent, more pleasant, more free from temptation to cost, than any other; so pleasant in itself! It is conducive to health, by means of the irresistible temptation which it offers to early rising; it tends to turn the minds of youth from amusements and attachments of a frivolous or vicious nature; it is a taste which is indulged at home; it tends to make home pleasant, and to endear us to the spot on which it is our lot to live." When Mr. Johnson forcibly paints the allurements to a love for this art, when concluding his energetic volume on gardening, by quoting from Socrates, that "it is the source of health, strength, plenty, riches, and of a thousand sober delights and honest pleasures."--And from Lord Verulam, that amid its scenes and pursuits, "life flows pure, and the heart more calmly beats." And when M. le V. H. de Thury, président de la Société d'Horticulture de Paris, in his Discours d'Installation says: "Dans tous les temps et dans tous les pays, les hommes les plus célèbres, les plus grands capitaines, les princes, et les rois, se sont livrés avec délices, et souvent avec passion, à la culture des plantes et des jardins." And among other instances he cites "Descartes, qui se livrait avec une égale ardeur à la science des astres et à la culture des fleurs de son jardin, et qui souvent, la nuit, quittait ses observations célestes pour étudier le sommeil et la floraison de ses plantes avant le lever du soliel."[22] Petrarch, too, who has enchanted every nation and every age, from his endeared Vaucluse, thus speaks of his garden: "I have formed two; I do not imagine they are to be equalled in all the world: I should feel myself inclined to be angry with fortune, if there were any so beautiful out of Italy. I have store of pleasant green walks, with trees shadowing them most sweetly." Indeed, what Cicero applies to another science, may well apply to horticulture: "nihil est _agriculturæ_ melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine, nihil libero dignius." Let me close with a most brilliant name;--the last resource in the _Candide_ of Voltaire is,--_cultivate your garden_.
In my transient review of the gardens of ancient times, at the commencement of the following work, I have not even glanced at those of the _Saxons_, in this island; when one should have thought that the majestic name of ALFRED alone, would have made a search of this nature interesting, even if such search were unavailing. I have also inadvertently omitted any allusion to those of the _Danes_ and the _Normans_. I have only then now to say, that Mr. Johnson's researches, as to these gardens, in pp. 31, 37, 38, 39 and 40 of his lately published History of English Gardening, with his elegant language and the flow of sentiment that pervades those pages, would make any search or review of mine presumptuous. In those pages, he dwells on the tendency which the then introduction of the christian religion had to soften the manners of the people, and by thus rendering them more domestic, gardening became an art congenial to their feelings; and whilst the country at large was devastated by war, the property of the religious establishments was held sacred, and varieties of vegetables preserved, which otherwise would soon have become extinct, if cultivated in less hallowed ground. He then traces the existence of many gardens, orchards, and vineyards, belonging to our monasteries, proving, that even in the time of the _Danes_, horticulture continued "silently to advance," and that at the time of the arrival of the _Normans_, gardens were generally in the possession of the laity, as well as of the ecclesiastics; and he refers to Doomsday Book for his assertion, that "there is no reason to doubt, that at this period, every house, from the palace to the cottage, was possessed of a garden of some size." He concludes with interesting references to the gardens, vineyards, and orchards, of the Abbot of Ely and other monks.
The above work of Mr. Johnson's is the result of original thought, and of an ardent and extended scientific research. Mine is a compilation, "made with a pair of scissors," to copy the words of Mr. Mathias, which he applies to a certain edition of Pope. I content myself, however, with the reflection of Mr. Walpole, that "they who cannot perform great things themselves, may yet have a satisfaction in doing justice to those who can."
Having alluded at pp. 71 and 120 to Dr. Alison, and having given at p. 211 Dr. Dibdin's tribute to him, I cannot omit reminding my reader, that the graceful language, the sublime and solemn thoughts, which this admirable divine has transfused into many of his Sermons on the Seasons, make one doubly feel the truth and propriety with which he has so liberally reviewed Mr. Whately's _Observations on Modern Gardening_.
ON THE PORTRAITS OF English Authors on Gardening.
ON THE PORTRAITS OF ENGLISH AUTHORS ON GARDENING.
The earliest accounts we have of gardens, are those recorded in Holy Writ; their antiquity, therefore, appears coeval with that of time itself. The Garden in Eden had every tree good for food, or pleasant to the sight. Noah planted a Vineyard. Solomon, in the true spirit of horticultural zeal, says, _I planted me Vineyards, I made me Gardens and Orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit_. We have all heard of the grandeur of Nebuchadnezzar's Gardens.
Whether that of Alcinous was fabulous or not, it gave rise to Homer's lofty strains:--
The balmy spirit of the western gale Eternal breathes on flowers untaught to fail; The same mild season gives the blooms to blow, The buds to harden, and the fruit to grow.[23]
That Homer was all alive to the rich scenery of nature, is evident, even from his Calypso's Cave:--
All o'er the cavern'd rock a sprouting vine Laid forth ripe clusters. Hence four limpid founts Nigh to each other ran, in rills distinct, Huddling along with many a playful maze. Around them the soft meads profusely bloom'd Fresh violets and balms.[24]
The Egyptians, the Persians, and other remote nations, prided themselves on their magnificent gardens. Diodorus Siculus mentions one "enriched with palm trees, and vines, and every kind of delicious fruit, by flowery lawns and planes, and cypresses of stupendous magnitude, with thickets of myrtle, and laurel, and bay." He paints too the attachment which some of the ancients had to landscape scenery:--
None of art's works, but prodigally strown By nature, with her negligence divine.
The splendid gardens at Damascus, were superintended by a native of Malaga, who "traversed the burning sands of Africa, for the purpose of describing such vegetables as could support the fervid heat of that climate." The cities of Samarcand, Balckd, Ispahan, and Bagdad, were enveloped and surrounded by luxurious and splendid gardens. No wonder when those countries were partly governed by such celebrated men as Haroun-al-Raschid, and his son Al-Mamoun, the generous protectors of Arabian literature, and which son (about the year 813) has been justly termed the _Augustus_ of Bagdad. "Study, books, and men of letters, (I am quoting the eloquent pages of De Sismondi _On the Literature of the Arabians_,) almost entirely engrossed his attention. Hundreds of camels might be seen entering Bagdad loaded with nothing but manuscripts and papers. Masters, instructors, translators, and commentators, formed the court of Al-Mamoun, which appeared rather to be a learned academy than the centre of government in a warlike empire."
The gardens of Epicurus, and of Pisistratus, Cimon, and Theophrastus, were the most famous of any in the Grecian empire. Those of Herculaneum may be seen in the 2nd vol. of the paintings found there. The luxurious gardens of the affluent Seneca, and the delight with which Cicero speaks of his paternal seat, (which enraptured his friend Atticus with its beauty,) and the romantic ones of Adrian, at Tivoli, and of Lucullus, of Sallust, of the rich and powerful Crassus, and of Pompey, shew the delight which the old Romans took in them. One may gather this also from Livy; and Virgil's energy of language warmly paints the
----flowering pride Of meads and streams that through the valleys glide. A country cottage near a crystal flood, A winding valley, and a lofty wood.
* * * * *
Leisure and calm in groves, and cooling vales; Grottoes and babbling brooks, and darksome dales.
Messaline (says a translation of Tacitus) avoit une passion extreme pour les jardins de Lucullus, qu'il embellisoit superbement, ajoûtant tous les jours quelque nouvelles beautez à cellés qu'ils avoint receuës de leur premier maitre.
We are reminded in a magic page of our own immortal poet, of those of Julius Cæsar, and of
----_his_ walks, His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,
when the noble Antony invokes the Romans to
----kiss dead Cæsar's wounds, And dip their napkins in his sacred blood.
Horace's incomparable lines on the happiness and delight of a country life, his country granges, his woods, his garden, and his grove; and many of the other Roman writers, abundantly shew their attachment to gardens, as accompaniments to their splendid villas. There was scarcely a romantic valley that was not crowded with their villas.
Martial and Juvenal ridicule the clipped box trees, cut dragons, and similar grotesque fancies, at some of their villas, both admiring the nobler grace with which nature adorned each spot.[25]
The Romans were perhaps the first who introduced that art into Britain, meagerly as they did introduce it. The earliest account I can find of an English writer on Gardening, is,
Alfred, an _Englishman_, surnamed the Philosopher, much respected at Rome. He died 1270, and left four books on the Meteors of Aristotle; also one on _Vegetables_, and five on the Consolations of Boethius. We are not _very_ likely to discover _his_ portrait. Nor that of the following:--
HENRY DANIEL, a Dominican friar, said to be well skilled in the natural philosophy and physic of his time, left a manuscript inscribed _Aaron Danielis_. He therein treats De re Herbaria, de Arboribus, _Fructibus_, &c. He flourished about the year 1379.--N. B. I have copied this article from Dr. Pulteney's Sketches, vol. 1, page 23.[26]
I believe there are no Portraits engraved, nor perhaps yet discovered, of the following sixty-nine persons; at least I know of none:--
RICHARD ARNOLDE, who in his Chronicle, printed in 1502, has a chapter on "The crafte of graffynge, and plantyne, and alterynge of fruyts, as well in colours, as in taste." The celebrated poem of the Nut-brown Maid first appeared in this Chronicle. Sir E. Brydges, in vol. 6 of his Censura Literaria, has transcribed the whole poem as it appears in Arnolde.
THOMAS TUSSER, whose memory has had the felicity to merit the notice of Mr. Warton, in his History of English Poetry, from his having published his poem of "A Hundreth good Pointes of Husbandrie, imprinted at London, in Flete strete, within Temple barre, at the syne of the Hand and Starre, by Richard Totell, An. 1577." A copy of this first edition (probably unique) is preserved in the British Museum. A re-print of this singular literary rarity is given in Mr. Hazlewood's British Bibliographer. The subsequent editions of this curious book are interestingly enumerated by Mr. Mavor, in his edition of Tusser. No portrait I believe has been discovered of this benevolent man, whose good sense, impressive maxims, enlightened and philosophic turn of mind and feeling for the poor, shine through most pages of his poem:--
What better bed than conscience good, to pass the night with sleep, What better work, than daily care, from sin thyself to keep? What better thought, than think on God, and daily him to serve, What better gift than to the poor, that ready be to sterve?
His estimate of life is concise:--
To death we must stoop, be we high, be we low, But how and how suddenly few be that know; What carry we then but a sheet to the grave, (To cover this carcass) of all that we have?
His hospitable heart thus pleads for the desolate, during the festivities of Christmas, and his love of "mirth and good cheer" makes him not forget Harvests home:--
At Christmas, the hardness of winter doth rage, A griper of all things, and specially age; Then sadly poor people, the young and the old, Be sorest oppressed with hunger and cold.
At Christmas, by labour there's little to get, That wanting--the poorest in danger are set: What season then better, of all the whole year, Thy needy, poor neighbour, to comfort and cheer.
At Christmas be merry, and thankful withal, And feast thy poor neighbours, the great with the small: Yea all the year long, to the poor let us give, God's blessing to follow us, whiles we do live.
In harvest time, harvest folk, servants and all Should make, all together, good cheer in the hall; And fill out the black bowl of blythe to their song, And let them be merry all harvest time long.
Once ended thy harvest, let none be beguil'd, Please such as did help thee--man, woman, and child,-- Thus doing, with alway, such help as they can, Thou winnest the praise of the labouring man.
Now look up to God-ward, let tongue never cease In thanking of him, for his mighty increase, Accept my good will--for a proof go and try; The better thou thrivest, the gladder am I.
Tusser died about the year 1583, aged about sixty-five, and is buried in St. Mildred's church, in the Poultry. His epitaph is preserved in Stowe's Survey of London; and (as Mr. Mavor observes) it is perfectly in character with the man and his writings; and if conjecture may be allowed, was penned by himself:--
Here Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie, Who sometime made the Points of Husbandry. By him then learn thou may'st. Here learn we must, When all is done, we sleep and turn to dust. And yet, through Christ, to heaven we hope to go: Who reads his books, shall find his faith was so.
His book exhibits an authentic picture of the state of horticulture during the time of Mary, and Elizabeth; and, as Mr. Warton observes, his work "is valuable as a genuine picture of the agriculture, the rural arts, and the domestic oeconomy and customs of our industrious ancestors."
Walter Blith says of him:--"As for Master Tusser, who rimeth out of his experience, if thou delightest therein, thou mayst find things worthy thy observation."
Sir John Hawkins, in his History of Music, thus writes:--"The life of this poor man was a series of misfortunes; and is a proof of the truth of that saying in Holy Scripture, that 'the battle is not to the strong, nor the race to the swift.' As to the Points of Husbandry, it is written in familiar verse, and abounds with many curious particulars, that bespeak the manners, the customs, and the modes of living in the country, from the year 1520 to about half a century after; besides which, it discovers such a degree of oeconomical wisdom in the author, such a sedulous attention to the honest arts of thriving, such a general love of mankind, such a regard to justice, and a reverence for religion, that we do not only lament his misfortunes, but wonder at them; and are at a loss to account for his dying poor, who understood so well the method to become rich."
From the "Literary Life and Select Works of Benjamin Stillingfleet," I select a small part of what that worthy man says of Tusser:--"He seems to have been a good-natured cheerful man, and though a lover of oeconomy, far from meanness, as appears in many of his precepts, wherein he shews his disapprobation of that pitiful spirit, which makes farmers starve their cattle, their land, and every thing belonging to them; chusing rather to lose a pound than spend a shilling. Upon the whole, his book displays all the qualities of a well-disposed man, as well as of an able farmer. He wrote in the infancy of farming, and therefore I shall give a full account of his practice, especially as his precepts will be comprised in a narrow compass, and as a sort of justice done to him as an original writer."
Mr. Mavor observes, "The precepts of Tusser indeed are so excellent, that few can read them without profit and improvement; he appears to have possessed such a degree of pious resignation to the will of the Supreme, of christian charity, and of good humour, under all his miscarriages, that his character rises high in our esteem, independent of his merits as a writer. The cultivated and liberal mind of Tusser seems to have been ill-suited to his fortune, and to his vocation. A love of hospitality probably kept him from independence; yet if he was imprudent, we cannot help loving the man and admiring the justness of his sentiments on every subject connected with life and morals."
Fuller, in his _Worthies of Essex_, says, "he spread his bread with all sorts of butter, yet none would stick thereon. Yet I hear no man to charge him with any vicious extravagancy, or visible carelessness, imputing his ill success to some occult cause in God's counsel."
I am indebted, in some degree, for these several testimonies, to Mr. Mavor's spirited edition of this book, which he has enriched with a biographical sketch of Tusser, and with many interesting illustrations of his poem. He exhibits another instance of the private character of Tusser, in his concluding remarks on the last page of his work:--"The moral feeling and the pious resignation which breathe in the concluding stanzas of this poem, leave a powerful impression on the mind; and whatever vicissitudes in life the Editor or his Readers may experience, he wishes for Himself and for Them, the same philosophic and christian composure, on a retrospect of the past, and the anticipated view of futurity."
Of Mr. Warton's remarks on Tusser, Mr. Mavor thus partly speaks:--"For the personal kindness of Warton to me, at an early period of life, I shall ever retain an affectionate remembrance of him, and for his genius and high attainments in literature, I feel all that deference and respect which can belong to his most enthusiastic admirers; but no man was less a judge of the merits of a book on Husbandry and Huswifry."
Mr. Warton observes, that "Tusser's general precepts have often an expressive brevity, and are sometimes pointed with an epigrammatic turn, and smartness of allusion."
In Tusser's poetical account of his own unsuccessful life,
_How through the briers my youthful years Have run their race_,--