Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/398

 298 STATE or HORTICULTURE IN ENGLAND some caution. Thus his description of what a "7iobilis orfus'' should contain is evidently in a great degree purely rhetorical, since it enumerates besides trees and plants indigenous to, or then probably acclimatised in, England, others which were, and still are, except under very special conditions, natives solely of the south-east of Europe and of Asia. That his description, however, was not wholly inapplicable to an English monastic garden of the twelfth century, is proved by his mention of the pear of St. Regie, a fruit of Erencli origin and name, and one which, as will be shewn hereafter, was extensively cultivated in this country during the thirteenth century. Besides this pear he enumerates apples, chestnuts, peaches, pomegranates, citrons, golden apples, almonds and figs. A doubt may be reasonably felt as to the cultivation of either the pomegranate or citron, even in the most scientific claustral garden, in Eng- land dming the latter half of the twelfth century. It should be remembered, nevertheless, that both had been grown in Italy and the south of France, from the time of the Romans, and that specimens may have been introduced as curiosities by some one or other of the travelled, or ahen, churchmen of Necham's time. We know from the interesting memorials of the early abbats of St. Alban's, preserved by IMattheAV Paris, that they frequently visited Italy on the affairs of their house, and they may have imported from thence horticultural rarities for theii' garden, just as they were accustomed to bring over rari- ties in art for the decoration of their church. There is no reason to suppose that the chestnut, even though not indige- nous, a fact by no means certain, did not grow in this country subsequent to Roman times ; the same remark applies to the peach, almond, and fig ; the first of these fruits was cultivated as far north as St. Gall in the time of Charlemagne, and was certainly planted in the palace garden at Westminster as early as the year 12 7G, There remain then of the fruit trees which Necham thought requisite for a " noble garden" only the " golden apples" {aurea mala) to be disposed of; it is not at all probable that they were golden pippins, and they must, we fear, be assigned to the fabled Hesperides of which he had read in his favourite Solinus. Although he does not name them as desirable in a "noble garden," Necham mentions, in another place, cherries and nmlberries, with this remark, " they (and other soft fruits) should be taken on an empty stomach, and not after a meal." Among soft fruits he reck- oned apples ; his notion that pears, unless cooked, were cold