By constant work a day or more,
My little mansion may restore;
And, if each tear that you have shed
Had been a needleful of thread,
And every sigh of sad despair,
Had been a stitch with proper care,
Closed would have been the luckless rent,
Nor thus the day have been mispent.”
Exotic Fruits and Flowers in England.
The damask rose was first introduced into England by the learned Linacre, on his return from Italy, about 1500. Thomas, Lord Cromwell, in the reign of Henry VIII., enriched the fruit-gardens there with three different kinds of plums, introduced from foreign lands. The first orange tree appears to have been taken into England by one of the Carew family; for a century afterwards they flourished at the family seat in Surrey. The cherry orchards of Kent were first planted by a gardener of Henry VIII., and the currant bush was introduced when the commerce with Zante was first opened, in the same reign.