DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0089
EARLY GARDEN LITERATURE.
67
The original was written in Anglicised Norman-French, but this
treatise concerns the farm more than the garden.*
Necham, who lived at the same time as Grosseteste, was a
more original writer. He was born in 1157, passed the early
part of his life at St. Albans, and was made the director of the
school belonging to the Abbey at Dunstable; by 1180 he was
a distinguished professor at Paris University, returned to
Dunstable about 1186, but soon after left the Benedictines of
St. Albans, and joined the Augustines of Cirencester, was there
elected Abbot in 1213, and died in 1217. Necham’s “ De laudibus
divinae Sapientise,” a poem in ten parts, devotes many lines to
the praise of various flowers and fruits. The seventh book is on
the excellence of such herbs as betony, centaury, plantain, worm-
wood ; the eighth is about fruits—cherries, peaches, medlars,
and so forth. He does not, however, confine his praises to
English productions, but sings of terebinth, cinnamon, and
spices, and fruits which he had probably never seen in their
natural state. In like manner, his description in his other
work, De Naturis Rerum, of what a “noble garden” should be,
is drawn from imagination, as many plants, quite unfit for
culture in the open air in this country, or even in Europe, are
included in the list of what the garden should contain. This
is easily accounted for, as Necham, like others of his time,
borrowed freely from classical writers. “The garden,” t he writes,
“ should be adorned with roses and lilies, turnsole, violets, and
mandrake ; there you should have parsley and cost, and fennel,
and southernwood, and coriander, sage, savory, hyssop, mint,
rue, dittany, smallage, pellitory, lettuce, garden cress, peonies.
There should also be planted beds with onions, leeks, garlick,
pumpkins, and shalots ; cucumber, poppy, daffodil, and acanthus
ought to be in a good garden. There should also be pottage
herbs, such as beets, herb mercury, orach, sorrel, and mallows.”
So far, this is evidently a simple catalogue of what was to be
seen in his garden at Cirencester, or any other fair-sized garden
* Several MSS. exist, see Dr. Cunningham’s Introduction to Walter de
Henley’s Husbandry. Royal Historical Society, 1890.
t The translation of the names of plants is taken from Wright’s edition
of Necham’s works.
*
5
67
The original was written in Anglicised Norman-French, but this
treatise concerns the farm more than the garden.*
Necham, who lived at the same time as Grosseteste, was a
more original writer. He was born in 1157, passed the early
part of his life at St. Albans, and was made the director of the
school belonging to the Abbey at Dunstable; by 1180 he was
a distinguished professor at Paris University, returned to
Dunstable about 1186, but soon after left the Benedictines of
St. Albans, and joined the Augustines of Cirencester, was there
elected Abbot in 1213, and died in 1217. Necham’s “ De laudibus
divinae Sapientise,” a poem in ten parts, devotes many lines to
the praise of various flowers and fruits. The seventh book is on
the excellence of such herbs as betony, centaury, plantain, worm-
wood ; the eighth is about fruits—cherries, peaches, medlars,
and so forth. He does not, however, confine his praises to
English productions, but sings of terebinth, cinnamon, and
spices, and fruits which he had probably never seen in their
natural state. In like manner, his description in his other
work, De Naturis Rerum, of what a “noble garden” should be,
is drawn from imagination, as many plants, quite unfit for
culture in the open air in this country, or even in Europe, are
included in the list of what the garden should contain. This
is easily accounted for, as Necham, like others of his time,
borrowed freely from classical writers. “The garden,” t he writes,
“ should be adorned with roses and lilies, turnsole, violets, and
mandrake ; there you should have parsley and cost, and fennel,
and southernwood, and coriander, sage, savory, hyssop, mint,
rue, dittany, smallage, pellitory, lettuce, garden cress, peonies.
There should also be planted beds with onions, leeks, garlick,
pumpkins, and shalots ; cucumber, poppy, daffodil, and acanthus
ought to be in a good garden. There should also be pottage
herbs, such as beets, herb mercury, orach, sorrel, and mallows.”
So far, this is evidently a simple catalogue of what was to be
seen in his garden at Cirencester, or any other fair-sized garden
* Several MSS. exist, see Dr. Cunningham’s Introduction to Walter de
Henley’s Husbandry. Royal Historical Society, 1890.
t The translation of the names of plants is taken from Wright’s edition
of Necham’s works.
*
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