DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0032
10
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
of the fourteenth century differed little from those of the twelfth.
To gain a fuller knowledge of these gardens, we must pass
over two centuries to the time when written accounts begin. As
we get into the fourteenth century there is more material on
which to work. The outlines of the management of these
gardens is clear, although the details can only be filled in by
imagination.
Each department within the monastery was directed in a
regular and orderly way, and was presided over by an officer,
with set duties to perform; who had to keep the accounts
of his office, and was responsible for its management. There
was a Gardener, or Hortulanus or Gardinarius, or Garden
Warder, just as much as there was an Almoner, Sacristan,
Precentor, or any other officer.
In some instances the accounts of the Hortulanus have been
preserved, and further references to gardening matters are
scattered throughout various chartularies. Two very perfect
series are those of Norwich Priory and Abingdon Abbey,* and
they are doubtless fair examples of the Gardener’s accounts in
the majority of monasteries. There are four accounts at Abing-
don, the earliest for the year 1369-70. The Norwich series is
far more numerous, there being some thirty rolls, the earliest
1340, the last 1529 ; the first years of the fifteenth century being
well represented.
These accounts show the receipts and expenses of the office,
the cost of repairs, the money received from the few products
sold, but they throw no light on the processes of cultivation, nor
do they particularize the plants which were grown.
Like the other officers, or obedientiars, the Hortulanus had
his “ famulus ” to assist in the work, and was also allowed to
employ labourers, and money was forthcoming for their payment
from the rent of some small piece of land, or some tenements
which belonged to the office. At Ramsey Abbey f there were
* Those at Norwich are only in MS. Those at Abingdon are printed by
Camden Soc., Accounts of the Obedientiars of Abingdon Abbey, R. E. G. Kirk,
1892.
t Cartularium Monasterii de Rameseia, Wm. Hart. List of Monastic
officers.
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
of the fourteenth century differed little from those of the twelfth.
To gain a fuller knowledge of these gardens, we must pass
over two centuries to the time when written accounts begin. As
we get into the fourteenth century there is more material on
which to work. The outlines of the management of these
gardens is clear, although the details can only be filled in by
imagination.
Each department within the monastery was directed in a
regular and orderly way, and was presided over by an officer,
with set duties to perform; who had to keep the accounts
of his office, and was responsible for its management. There
was a Gardener, or Hortulanus or Gardinarius, or Garden
Warder, just as much as there was an Almoner, Sacristan,
Precentor, or any other officer.
In some instances the accounts of the Hortulanus have been
preserved, and further references to gardening matters are
scattered throughout various chartularies. Two very perfect
series are those of Norwich Priory and Abingdon Abbey,* and
they are doubtless fair examples of the Gardener’s accounts in
the majority of monasteries. There are four accounts at Abing-
don, the earliest for the year 1369-70. The Norwich series is
far more numerous, there being some thirty rolls, the earliest
1340, the last 1529 ; the first years of the fifteenth century being
well represented.
These accounts show the receipts and expenses of the office,
the cost of repairs, the money received from the few products
sold, but they throw no light on the processes of cultivation, nor
do they particularize the plants which were grown.
Like the other officers, or obedientiars, the Hortulanus had
his “ famulus ” to assist in the work, and was also allowed to
employ labourers, and money was forthcoming for their payment
from the rent of some small piece of land, or some tenements
which belonged to the office. At Ramsey Abbey f there were
* Those at Norwich are only in MS. Those at Abingdon are printed by
Camden Soc., Accounts of the Obedientiars of Abingdon Abbey, R. E. G. Kirk,
1892.
t Cartularium Monasterii de Rameseia, Wm. Hart. List of Monastic
officers.