The first orange trees seen in England, are said to have been planted by Sir Francis Carew, at Beddington, in Surrey. Sir Francis died in 1607, aged 81. Aubrey says they were brought from Italy by Sir Francis, but the editors of the Biographia Britannica speaking from a tradition preserved in the family, tell us that they were raised by him from the seeds of the first oranges which were imported into England by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had married his niece. The trees were planted in the open ground, and were preserved in the winter by a moveable shed. They flourished about a century and a half, being destroyed by the hard frost in 1739-40.
In the transactions of the Linnæan Society there are some notices relating to the progress of botany in England, written by the late eminent naturalist, Peter Collinson. Speaking of the orange trees at Beddington be says—“In the reign of queen Elizabeth the first orange and lemon trees were introduced into England by two curious gentlemen, one of them Sir Nicholas Carew, at Beddington. They were planted in the natural ground, but against every winter an artificial covering was raised for their protection. I have seen them some years ago[[58]] in great perfection. But this apparatus going to decay, without due consideration a green-house of brick work was built all round them, and left on the top uncovered in the summer. I visited them a year or two after in their new habitation, and to my great concern found some dyeing, and all declining; for although there were windows on the south side, they did not thrive in their confinement; but being kept damp, with the rains, and wanting a free, airy, full sun, all the growing months of summer, they languished, and at last all died.
“A better fate has attended the other fine parcel of orange trees, &c. brought over at the same time, by Sir Robert Mansell, at Margam in South Wales. My nephew counted 80 trees of citrons, limes, burgamots, Seville and China orange-trees, planted in great cases all ranged in a row before the green-house. This is the finest sight of its kind in England. He had the curiosity to measure one of them. A China orange measured in the extent of its branches fourteen feet. A Seville orange-tree was fourteen feet high, the case included, and the stem twenty one inches round. A China orange-tree twenty two inches and a half in girt.
“I visited the orangery at Margam, in the year 1766, in company with Mr. Lewis Thomas, a very sensible and attentive man, who told me that the orange-trees, &c. in that garden were intended as a present from the king of Spain to the king of Denmark; and that the vessel in which they were shipped, being taken in the channel, the trees were made a present of to Sir Robert Mansell.”
ARTICLES OF USE AND LUXURY INTRODUCED INTO EUROPE BY THE ROMANS.
Whatever evils either reason or declamation have imputed to extensive empire, the power of Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences to mankind; and the same freedom of intercourse which extended the vices, diffused likewise the improvements of social life. In the more remote ages of antiquity, the world was unequally divided. The east was in the immemorial possession of arts and luxury; whilst the west was inhabited by rude and warlike barbarians, who either disdained agriculture, or to whom it was totally unknown. Under the protection of an established government, the productions of happier climates, and the industry of more civilized nations were gradually introduced into the western countries of Europe, and the natives were encouraged, by an open and profitable commerce, to multiply the former, as well as to improve the latter. It would be almost impossible to enumerate all the articles, either of the animal or vegetable kingdoms which were successively imported into Europe from Asia and Egypt; it is only intended here to touch on a few of the principal heads. It is also not improbable that the Greeks and Phœnicians introduced some new arts and productions into the neighbourhood of Marseilles and Cadiz.
1. Almost all the flowers, the herbs, and the fruits, that grow in our European gardens, are of foreign extraction, which in many cases, is betrayed even by their names; the apple was a native of Italy, and when the Romans had tasted the richer flavour of the apricot, the peach, the pomegranate, the citron, and the orange, they contented themselves with applying to all these new fruits the common denomination of apple, discriminating them from each other by the additional epithet of their country.
2. In the time of Homer, the vine grew wild in the island of Sicily, and most probably in the adjacent continent; but it was not improved by the skill, nor did it afford a liquor grateful to the taste, of the savage inhabitants. A thousand years afterwards, Italy could boast, that of the fourscore most generous and celebrated wines, more than two thirds were produced from her soil. The blessing was soon communicated to the Narbonnese province of Gaul; but so intense was the cold to the north of the Cevennes, that in the time of Strabo, it was thought impossible to ripen the grapes in those parts of Gaul. The intense cold of a Gallic winter was even proverbial among the ancients. This difficulty, however, was gradually vanquished; and there is some reason to believe that the vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age of the Antonines. In the beginning of the fourth century, the orator Eumenius speaks of the vines in the territory of Autun, which were decayed through age, and the first plantation of which was totally unknown.
3. The olive, in the western world, followed the progress of peace, of which it was considered as the symbol. Two centuries after the foundation of Rome, both Italy and Africa were strangers to that useful plant; it was naturalized in those countries; and at length carried into the heart of Spain and Gaul. The timid errors of the ancients, that it required a certain degree of heat, and could only flourish in the neighbourhood of the sea, were insensibly exploded by industry and experience.
4. The cultivation of flax was transported from Egypt to Gaul, and enriched the whole country, however it might impoverish the particular lands on which it was sown.