"What shall I say? A thousand of pleasant delightes are attendant in an Orchard: and sooner shall I be weary, than I can recken the least part of that pleasure, which one that hath and loues an Orchard, may find therein.
"What is there of all these few that I haue reckoned, which doth not please the eye, the eare, the smell, and taste? And by these sences as organes, pipes, and windowes, these delights are carried to refresh the gentle, generous, and noble mind.
"To conclude, what ioy may you haue, that you liuing to such an age, shall see the blessings of God on your labours while you liue, and leaue behind you to heires or successors (for God will make heires) such a worke, that many ages after your death, shall record your loue to their countrey? And the rather, when you consider (chap. 14.) to what length of time your worke is like to last."
Page [30].—Having briefly glanced in this page at the delight with which Sir H. Davy, Mr. Worlidge, and Mr. Whateley, viewed the flowers of spring, I can only add this reflection of Sturm:—"If there were no stronger proofs on earth of the power, goodness, and wisdom of God, the flowers of spring alone, would be sufficient to convince us of it."
Page [45].—The character of this modest and candid man, (Switzer), has found an able advocate in the honest pen of Mr. Johnson, who, in p. 159 of his History of Gardening, after noticing the acrimony of his opponents, observes, "Neglect has pursued him beyond the grave, for his works are seldom mentioned or quoted as authorities of the age he lived in. To me he appears to be the best author of his time; and if I was called upon to point out the classic authors of gardening, Switzer should be one of the first on whom I would lay my finger. His works evidence him at once to have been a sound, practical horticulturist, a man well versed in the botanical science of the day, in its most enlarged sense." Mr. Johnson enumerates the distinct contents of each chapter in the Iconologia—the Kitchen Gardener—and the Fruit Gardener.
Page [59].—The Tortworth Chesnut was growing previous to the Norman Conquest. It fixes the boundary of a manor. Even in the reign of Stephen, it was known as the great chesnut of Tortworth.
Page [62].—The author of this treatise, who is a zealous orchardist, is lavish in his praise of a then discovered apple-tree and its produce, "for the little cot-house to which it belongs, together with the little quillet in which it stands, being several years since mortgaged for ten pounds, the fruit of this tree alone, in a course of some years, freed the house and garden, and its more valuable self, from that burden." A neighbouring clergyman, too, was equally lavish, for he "talked of it in all conversations," and such was his praise of it, that every one "fell to admiration." Mr. Stafford is so pleased with this reverend gentleman's zeal, in extending the cultivation of this apple, (the Royal Wilding) that he says, "I could really wish, whenever the original tree decayeth, his statue carved out of the stump, by the most expert hand, and overlaid with gold, may be erected near the public road, in the place of it, at the common charge of the country." He celebrates also another apple, which "in a pleasant conversation was named by a gentleman super-celestial. Another gentleman, in allusion to Pynes, the name of my house, and to the common story of the West India pineapple, (which is said to be the finest fruit in the world, and to represent every exquisite flavour that is known), determined that it should be called the pyne-apple; and by either of these names it is talked of when pleasantry and conversation bring the remembrance of it to the table."
Page [64].—It is but justice to Mr. Gibson to say, that in his Fruit Gardener, he has entered fully into the merits of Le Genre's Le maniere de cultiver les arbres fruitiers; and that his pages are extremely interesting. The great merits of Quintinye are also not overlooked.
Page [84].—To the list of those deceased authors, whose portraits I have not been able to discover, I must add the following:
John Braddick, Esq. A zealous horticulturist and fruit grower. He contributed four papers to the Horticultural Society of London. In the Gardener's Mag. for Jan. 1827, is a communication by him, on some new French pears. The editor of this magazine acknowledges "the very liberal and truly patriotic manner in which our highly-valued correspondent shares every novelty he receives with those whose interest it is to increase and disseminate such novelties." In the above magazine for March, 1827, is another spirited communication by him, on these new pears, introduced from France, in which he says:—"And here I think it necessary to premise, that the following list is the cream skimmed off some thousands of new pears, which I have for many years past been getting together from various parts of the world, about two-thirds of which yet remain for trial, not having fruited, together with some thousands of seedling pears, apples, plums, cherries, apricots, peaches and grapes, of my own raising; the fruits of some of which I hope will continue to gladden the hearts of horticulturists for many years to come. As they are produced I will make them known to the public, with as much facility as lies in my power.