DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0056
34
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
But, in spite of all these disadvantages, some attempt at
cultivation of fruit was not unfrequently made.
At Carlisle there must have been gardens round the town,
and outside the castle walls, if the old rhyming Chronicle of
the Wars in 1173 and 1174, between Henry II. and William
the Lion, of Scotland, is to be believed. The supposed
author, Jordan Fantosme, describes the siege of the Castle
of Carlisle. The translation of one verse runs thus* * * § :—
“ They did not lose within, I assure you I do not lie,
As much as amounted to a silver denier.
But they lost their fields, with all their corn
[And] their gardens [were] ravaged by those bad people,
And he who could not do any more injury took it into his head
To bark the apple trees ;—it was bad vengeance.” f
Scattered throughout the Pipe rolls and Exchequer rolls
and Liberate rolls, there are to be found a few entries which
indicate some of the royal gardens in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. In 1158-9 occur payments to the king’s orchardman,
■“ Henricus Arborarii,” in London, and to the vine-dressers at
Windsor and elsewhere.J In 1259, Henry III. made extensive
alterations at the Palace of Westminster, and among payments
to workmen and carpenters and others,§ occur several to
labourers for “ levelling the area of the garden with a roller.”
In the reign of Edward I. further entries occur for keeping
the garden, and for dressing the vines in the vineyard at
Westminster, and of payment of the daily wage of 2jd. to
il Roger le Herberur,” “formerly servant to the Lord the King
Henry, the king’s father.” In 1276-7, we find the king paying as
much as £97. 17s. 7^d. to Master Robert de Beverley, keeper of
the king’s woods, “ for divers necessary things ... to make
* Surtees Society, 1840, p. 77.
f A curious confirmation of the gardens at Carlisle even earlier, 1131,
is in the Pipe Roll, 31st Henry I. (printed ed., p. 141).
Receipt from Crown lands—“William Fitz Baldwin renders account of
30s. of old farm of the king’s garden of Carlisle. He delivered
[the same] into the Treasury—And he is quit. And the same
William owes 30s. of the farm of the same garden of this year
past.”
f Pipe Roll Society. Vol. I., 1884.
§ Devon Issue Rolls of the Exchequer, 1837.
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
But, in spite of all these disadvantages, some attempt at
cultivation of fruit was not unfrequently made.
At Carlisle there must have been gardens round the town,
and outside the castle walls, if the old rhyming Chronicle of
the Wars in 1173 and 1174, between Henry II. and William
the Lion, of Scotland, is to be believed. The supposed
author, Jordan Fantosme, describes the siege of the Castle
of Carlisle. The translation of one verse runs thus* * * § :—
“ They did not lose within, I assure you I do not lie,
As much as amounted to a silver denier.
But they lost their fields, with all their corn
[And] their gardens [were] ravaged by those bad people,
And he who could not do any more injury took it into his head
To bark the apple trees ;—it was bad vengeance.” f
Scattered throughout the Pipe rolls and Exchequer rolls
and Liberate rolls, there are to be found a few entries which
indicate some of the royal gardens in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. In 1158-9 occur payments to the king’s orchardman,
■“ Henricus Arborarii,” in London, and to the vine-dressers at
Windsor and elsewhere.J In 1259, Henry III. made extensive
alterations at the Palace of Westminster, and among payments
to workmen and carpenters and others,§ occur several to
labourers for “ levelling the area of the garden with a roller.”
In the reign of Edward I. further entries occur for keeping
the garden, and for dressing the vines in the vineyard at
Westminster, and of payment of the daily wage of 2jd. to
il Roger le Herberur,” “formerly servant to the Lord the King
Henry, the king’s father.” In 1276-7, we find the king paying as
much as £97. 17s. 7^d. to Master Robert de Beverley, keeper of
the king’s woods, “ for divers necessary things ... to make
* Surtees Society, 1840, p. 77.
f A curious confirmation of the gardens at Carlisle even earlier, 1131,
is in the Pipe Roll, 31st Henry I. (printed ed., p. 141).
Receipt from Crown lands—“William Fitz Baldwin renders account of
30s. of old farm of the king’s garden of Carlisle. He delivered
[the same] into the Treasury—And he is quit. And the same
William owes 30s. of the farm of the same garden of this year
past.”
f Pipe Roll Society. Vol. I., 1884.
§ Devon Issue Rolls of the Exchequer, 1837.