DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0093
EARLY GARDEN LITERATURE.
71
the fifteenth century known as the Porkington Treatise, has
a few pages devoted to grafting and planting of trees which
contain almost the same matter as those already cited, with a
few additions. The author gives all the usual recipes for making
fruit grow without stones, and so on, but he tells also how to
graft a vine and a red rose on a cherry, and how to make the
fruit turn blue by boring “ an hole in the tre nise the rote ”
and putting in “ good asure of Almayne ; ” also, he says rose
hips, or “ pepynes,” as he calls them, should be sown in
February or March, “and dew heme welle with water” “iff
thou wolt have many rosys in thy herbere.” *
The earliest known really original work on gardening,
written in English, is a treatise in verse by “ Mayster Ion
Gardener,” of' which a unique manuscript exists in the Library
of Trinity College, Cambridge.f It is contained in a small
volume of miscellaneous manuscript matter, which was given to
the College by Roger Gale, in 1738. This copy was apparently
written about 1440, but the poem is probably of earlier date.
From the evidence of the language, it appears that the author
was Kentish, and from the mistakes of the copyist, it would
seem that he was unfamiliar with some of the words which
were becoming obsolete at the time he wrote. The exist-
ing title, “The Feate of Gardening,” is evidently added
by a later hand. Nothing definite is known of the author
of this poem. He may have been a professional gardener,
or he may merely have assumed the name, as symbolic of
the craft, just as Langland wrote under the name of Piers
Ploughman. We certainly find John a very common Christian
name among the gardeners of the period. This treatise is a
great step in advance of earlier writers. It is so thoroughly
practical, that the directions it contains might be followed with
successful results at the present day. It is unencumbered
by superstitions, then so prevalent, and quite free from fanciful
recipes. The poem contains 196 lines, consisting of a prologue
“ Porkington MS., the property of W. Ormsby Gore, published by the
Warton Club in 1855, under the title of Early English Miscellanies, ed. by
G. O. Halliwell, f.r.s., &c.
f Printed in the Archceologia, Vol. LIV., with a glossary by myself.
71
the fifteenth century known as the Porkington Treatise, has
a few pages devoted to grafting and planting of trees which
contain almost the same matter as those already cited, with a
few additions. The author gives all the usual recipes for making
fruit grow without stones, and so on, but he tells also how to
graft a vine and a red rose on a cherry, and how to make the
fruit turn blue by boring “ an hole in the tre nise the rote ”
and putting in “ good asure of Almayne ; ” also, he says rose
hips, or “ pepynes,” as he calls them, should be sown in
February or March, “and dew heme welle with water” “iff
thou wolt have many rosys in thy herbere.” *
The earliest known really original work on gardening,
written in English, is a treatise in verse by “ Mayster Ion
Gardener,” of' which a unique manuscript exists in the Library
of Trinity College, Cambridge.f It is contained in a small
volume of miscellaneous manuscript matter, which was given to
the College by Roger Gale, in 1738. This copy was apparently
written about 1440, but the poem is probably of earlier date.
From the evidence of the language, it appears that the author
was Kentish, and from the mistakes of the copyist, it would
seem that he was unfamiliar with some of the words which
were becoming obsolete at the time he wrote. The exist-
ing title, “The Feate of Gardening,” is evidently added
by a later hand. Nothing definite is known of the author
of this poem. He may have been a professional gardener,
or he may merely have assumed the name, as symbolic of
the craft, just as Langland wrote under the name of Piers
Ploughman. We certainly find John a very common Christian
name among the gardeners of the period. This treatise is a
great step in advance of earlier writers. It is so thoroughly
practical, that the directions it contains might be followed with
successful results at the present day. It is unencumbered
by superstitions, then so prevalent, and quite free from fanciful
recipes. The poem contains 196 lines, consisting of a prologue
“ Porkington MS., the property of W. Ormsby Gore, published by the
Warton Club in 1855, under the title of Early English Miscellanies, ed. by
G. O. Halliwell, f.r.s., &c.
f Printed in the Archceologia, Vol. LIV., with a glossary by myself.