A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle AgesWright, Thomas
History
A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages
Wright, Thomas
England -- Social life and customs -- 1066-1485
accounts of the earl of Lincoln’s garden in Holborn (London) in 1296.
It is rather surprising that Mr. Hudson Turner, in his very valuable
volume on domestic architecture, where he supposes that _mala aurea_ in
Neckam’s list were intended for the golden apples of the Hesperides,
should not have known that the _malum aureum_ of the middle ages was
the orange. Pomegranates, citrons, oranges, almonds, dates, and figs,
are known to have been cultivated in England at different periods, but
it is not probable that the fruit came often to perfection. It may be
remarked that Neckam gives a separate chapter to the cultivation of the
vine, which belonged to the vineyard, and not to the garden. After an
enumeration of plants which were not grown in Western Europe, Neckam
gives a list of others, known for their medicinal qualities, some of
which can hardly have been planted in a garden, unless it belonged to
a physician; although it appears to have been the custom to devote a
corner of the garden to the medicinal plants most in use, in order
that they might be ready at hand when wanted. The gardener’s tools
in the twelfth century, as enumerated by Neckam in his treatise _De
Utensilibus_, were few and simple; he had an axe, or twibill, a knife
for grafting, a spade, and a pruning-hook.
John de Garlande lived during the first half of the thirteenth century.
He was an Englishman, but had established himself as a scholar in the
university of Paris, so that the description of his garden which he
gives in his “Dictionarius” may be considered as that of a garden in
the neighbourhood of Paris, which, however, probably hardly differed
from a garden in England. It may be considered as the garden of a
respectable burgher. “In master John’s garden are these plants, sage,
parsley, dittany, hyssop, celandine, fennel, pellitory, the rose, the
lily, and the violet; and at the side (_i. e._ in the hedge), the
nettle, the thistle, and foxgloves. His garden also contains medicinal
herbs, namely, mercury and the mallow, agrimony, with nightshade,
and the marigold.” Master John’s gardener had also a garden for his
potherbs, in which grew borage, leeks, garlic, mustard, onions, cibols,
and scallions; and in his shrubbery grew pimpernel, mouseare, selfheal,
buglos, adderstongue, and “other herbs good for men’s bodies.”[33]
Master John had in his fruit-garden, cherry-trees, pear-trees,
apple-trees, plum-trees, quinces, medlars, peaches, chestnuts, nuts,
wallnuts, figs, and grapes. Walter de Bibblesworth, writing in
England towards the close of the thirteenth century, enumerates as the
principal fruit-trees in a common garden, apples, pears, and cherries--
_Pomere, perere, e cerecer_;
and adds the plum-tree (_pruner_), and the quince-tree (_coingner_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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