Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/396

 296 STATE OF HOETICULTURE IN ENGLAND a subject which should be peculiarly interesting to a garden- ing nation like our own. It is true that the ancient history of horticulture in England has been investigated by several eminent writers during the last and present century, but with what little snccess may be at once seen, when the late Mr. Loudon gravely stated " that we have no proof that cherries were in England at the time of the Norman Conquest or for some centuries after it'" It is clear that the first rudiments of horticultural science must have been introduced into this country by the Romans ; and the writings of Pliny shew us that the fruits cultivated by that people at the zenith of their rule included almost all those now in culture in Europe, with the exception of the orange^, pine-apple, gooseberry, currant, and raspberry. Even in those early times, and when much of the country was forest and marsh, we have the testimony of Tacitus ° that " the soil and climate of England were very fit for all kinds of fruit- trees, except the vine and the olive ; and for all plants and edible vegetables, except a few which are peculiar to hotter countries." If this observation does not exactly prove that the experiment had been widely tried, it supports the conjec- ture that it was not long before the Roman settlers introduced those fruits which they were accustomed to consume in their own country, and which were not found indigenous in this. Pliny states explicitly that cherries were planted in Britain about the middle of the first century ; they had been brought from Pontus to Italy by Lucullus'^ a hundred and twenty years previously. Notwithstanding the opinion of Tacitus, that our climate was not suited to the vine, it was in- troduced by the Romans in the third century, and that its culture was not afterwards abandoned, is proved by Bede's" notice of vineyards at the beginning of the eighth century. AVhatever may have been the amount of horticultural knowledge difi'used in England during the period of Roman occupation, there can be no reasonable doubt that much of it was soon lost amidst the anarchy and devastation which succeeded the immediate period of their dominion. Nature would in a great measure provide against the entire destruc- tion of the trees and plants which they had imported and • Encyclopsedia of Gardening, part iii. but see on this subject the edition of Des- bk. i. p. 923. ed. 1835. fontaines, Paris, 1829, vol. v. p. 10, and '■ Though this has been doubted ; some the Excursus, p. 99. writers having supposed the "mains as- c Vita Agric, cap. xiv. Syria," or " citrus medica," mentioned by ^ Hist. Nat., lib. xv. cap. xxx. Pliny, lib. xii. cap. vii., to mean tiic orange ;