incidents of my journey to the devastated | the following year. As we turn over the Bantam district must be reserved for my yellow pages of one of the first editions next paper. From The Spectator. AN OLD LONDON GARDENER. I. THE frequenters of the Holborn restaurant are not, perhaps, aware that they are recruiting their jaded energies near the site of some of the famous old London gardens. Yet so it is. Ely Place commemorates the palace of the Bishops of Ely; and we know that it was from the garden of his Grace that the much desired strawberries were brought in hot haste to the Tower on that summer morning of 1483, when, about "nine of the clock," the Duke of Gloucester sat talking with Morton and Hastings, the latter all unconscious of his impending doom. The incident, as related by Sir Thomas More, in his "History of the pitiful Life and unfortunate Death of King Edward V.," became immortal through its introduction into the well-known scene in Shakespeare's "Richard III." we marvel at the patient labor involved. The book, though styled a "Herbal," is a comprehensive history of plants, and, beyond its professional value, possesses great interest of another kind. Scattered throughout its pages are allusions to people and places curiously illustrative of the times. We propose to call attention, first, to the notices of localities in and around London where wild flowers were found in that day, such notices throwing light upon the size of the city and the rural aspect of the suburban places; and, secondly, to the accounts of flowers introduced into English gardens three hundred years ago. We will begin with the wall pennywort, not now a common plant. Gerard, however, had not far to seek it. "It groweth," he says, "upon Westminster Abbay, over the doore that leadeth from Chaucer his tombe to the olde palace." The Whitlow grass "groweth plentifully vpon the bricke wall in Chauncerie lane, belonging to the Earle of Southampton." Think also of what these few words convey. Writing of the wild clary, Gerard says: "It groweth wild in diuers barren Some ninety years later, John Gerard, places, especially in the fields of Hol taking a fancy to the quiet neighborhood burne, neere vnto Graies Inne." Here beyond the city walls, had laid out his is another pleasant glimpse. Herb two"physic-garden" near the banks of the pence, the yellow moneywort, was to be little brook, which, wandering down its found "vpon the bancke of the riuer of hollow way to join the larger stream of the Thames, right against the Queenes palace Fleet, had in Elizabeth's time given the of Whitehall." Of a certain crowfoot, name of Holborn to that locality. The the doctor says: "It chanced that walkCheshire doctor had already become a man ing in the fielde next vnto the Theater by of note. In 1597 he tells us that he had London, in company of a worshipful marfor twenty years superintended the stately chant, named master Nicholas Lete, I gardens of his patron, Sir William Cecil. founde one of this kinde there." Could The lord high treasurer, like so many this theatre be other than the Globe built other noblemen, had his town house in the in 1594? What suggestions reach us Strand, its memory being preserved (as through the following allusions to Gerard's we learn from Isaac Taylor) by Burleigh suburban rambles! He is discoursing of Street, Exeter Hall, and Exeter Street. hedge hyssop: "I founde it growing vpon The supervision of Lord Burghley's spa the bog or marrish ground at the further cious pleasaunce, and the management of end of Hampsteede heath, and vpon the his own professional garden, must have same heath towards London, neere vnto furnished abundant occupation to the wor- the head of the springs that were digged thy doctor, and we are therefore filled for water to be conveied to London, 1590, with astonishment in contemplating the attempted by that carefull citizen, Sir great work of his life. That ponderous quarto, with its thirteen hundred and ninety-two pages and more than two thousand illustrations, entitled, "The Historie of Plants: in Three Books," was published in 1597, and dedicated to Gerard's "singular good lord and master, Sir William Cecil, Knight." The work was only just completed in time, for Burghley died John Hart Knight, Lord Maior of London: at which time myselfe was in his Lordship's company, and viewing for my pleasure the same goodly springs, I found the said plant." Those plants which, according to our author, joy in watrie ditches," must have been easily studied without a long journey. The frogbit he found "in all the ditches about Saint George his fieldes, and in the ditches by the Thames side neere to Lambeth marsh." The gloomy haunt of the white saxifrage might be passed over were it not for the interest it possesses for students of Chaucer. In Gerard's time it grew "in a fielde on the left hand of the highway as you go from the place of execution, called St. Thomas Waterings vnto Dedford by London." Did not Sir Thomas Waterings commemorate one of the stations used by the Canterbury Pilgrims? 66 Several kinds of peaches are enumerated in "The Historie of Plants," as well as apricots, green figs, mulberries, quinces, many varieties of apples (amongst them the " pearemaine "), cherries, pears, medlars, etc. Among vegetables we naturally search eagerly for the mention of the potato. Gerard describes two species. The first, he says, grows in India, Barbary, and Spain, of which "I planted diuers rootes (that I bought at the exchange in London) in my garden, where they flourished vntill winter, at which time they perished and rotted." "The nutriment," he tells us, "is, as it were, a meane betweene flesh and fruit." The other kind (Battata Virginiana) has a still greater interest for us, though we look in vain for its association with Sir Walter Raleigh. Girard received his roots from "Virginia, otherwise called Norembega," and they grew and prospered in his garden. Both kinds of potato are either "rosted in the embers, or boiled and eaten with oile, vinegar, and pepper," and they "may serue as a ground or foundation, whereon the cunning confectioner or sugar-baker may work and frame many comfortable delicate conserues." Though ignoring the connection between the great colonist and the potato, Gerard does not fail to give him due honor. Witness this quaint and suggestive passage in another place in which he describes the Indian swallowwort: "It groweth, as before rehearsed, in the countries of Norembega, and now called Virginia by the H. Sir Walter Raleigh, who hath bestowed great summes of monie in the discouerie thereof, where are dwelling at this present Englishmen, if neither vntimely death by murdering, or pestilence, corrupt aire, or some other mortall sicknes hath not destroied them." We now come to the second point, the notices of flowers introduced into English gardens in Gerard's time, and as we read those words which so continually conclude the paragraph headed "The Place," "this plant grows also in my garden," we wonder what must the dimensions of his herbarium have been! Here is the history of our queenly white lily. It is "called Lilium album Bizantinum, in English the white lillie of Constantinople; of the Turkes themselves, Sultan Zambach, with this addition, that it might be the better knowen which kinde of lillie they ment, when they sent rootes of them vnto these countries." The variety of lilies then known surprises us; many came to Gerard through his "louing friend, master James Garret, apothecarie in London." To the Turks, also, we owe the crown imperial, and that gorgeous denizen of our gardens, the red lily. This plant groweth wilde in the fieldes and mountaines many daies journies beyonde Constantinople. From thence it was sent, among many other bulbs of rare and daintie flowers, by Master Habran, ambassador there, vnto my honorable good lord and master, the Lord Treasurer of England, who bestowed it vpon me for my garden." The day lily, the red gladiolus, or corn-flag, the fritillary (called also by Gerard "the ginnie-hen flower"), were all known to him, while the varieties of daffodils, squills, byacinths, and anemones are wonderful to read of. "The double white daffodill" was sent to Lord Burghley from Constantinople; other bulbous plants came from the "lowe Countries, as also from France." The "rush-daffodill" (rush. that volume of essays from the hand of leaved jonquil?) grew "wilde in the Francis Bacon, that mournful tragedy of waterie places of Spaine." From three "Romeo and Juliet," the work of the kinds of tulips we learn that "all other Warwickshire play-actor. The subtle kinds do proceed," tulips being then the fragrance of Provence roses, of eglantine, peculiar study of Master James Garret, clove gilliflowers, sweet basil, and marwho had, by careful sowing of seed, pro-joram, forsakes us, and on the summer cured an infinite variety. air from across the river dies away the evening chime from the bells of St. Mary of the Ferry. Nor had the tables of our Elizabethan ancestors any lack of fruits and vegetables. We close the ancient quarto, and the vision that has been with us fades away. The gallant courtiers in ruff and doublet, the stately dames in brocade and farthingale, grow dim. We listen no longer to the talk in those pleached alleys of the books which this year of grace, 1597, has given to the world -illustrious temporaries of "The Historie of Plants " con II. WHAT magic lies hidden within the dilapidated cover of the old brown volume of Gerard's "Herbal"! Another England than this of the nineteenth century rises before us as we turn over the leaves. The names of the statesmen who played their parts in "the spacious times of great Elizabeth," the allusions to new countries lately explored, carry us back three hundred years. We have already noticed Gerard's mention of Sir Walter Raleigh. We are told also that fluellen grew "in a field next unto the house sometime belonging to that honourable gentleman, Sir Frances Walsingham, at Barneelmes." Strange Indian fruits are connected with Sir Francis Drake, who brought these curiosities to England, being "those that some of the Indians do paie unto their king for tribute." Here is the introduction of the balsam-tree, a native of "the vales and low grounds of Peru." Gerard and his friends received its seeds from the Right Honourable the Lord of Hunsdon, Lord High Chamberlaine of England, woorthie of triple honour for his care in getting, as also for his curious keeping rare and strange things brought from the farthest parts of the world." Alas! for the balsam of Peru; notwithstanding all the doctor's care, the plants, when a foot high, perished at the first approach of winter. 66 * Queen Elizabeth had no lack of medical advisers, or Gerard of friends. No less than six of these learned gentlemen (two of them certainly royal "chirugions") commended Gerard to the public by prefatory addresses, both in prose and in verse, Latin as well as English. We can imagine that Thomas Thorney, who styles his friend "sweete Gerard," had himself watched the progress of "The Historie of Plants." He speaks of the expenditure of money, the laborious toil, the indefatigable industry, which went to the making of the great Herbal. We like Thorney's homely words of well-deserved praise: Of simples here we do behold, So aptly coucht in place, As much I muse, how such a worke We neede not far to rome, But may behold dame Nature's store in the Herbal. Nor are only the courtly doctors and statesmen mentioned. Gerard gives a little anecdote of a certain cherry-tree that bore but one cherry, the most pleasant taste whereof was witnessed by Master Bull, "the queene's maiesties clockmaker." In noticing Saracen's consound or wound-woort, he cannot refrain from a touch of self-congratulation. "With it I cured Master Cartwright, a gentleman of Grayes Inne, who was greevously wounded into the lungs." How punctilious is the doctor in acknowledging obligations! We read with interest of that extraordinary flower, "the amiable and pleasant kind of primrose," with its stalk of "grayish, or overworne greenish colour, which in the summer time bringeth foorth a soft russet huske or hose, wherein are contained many small flowers, found in a Yorkshire wood by the industry of a learned gentleman of Lancashire, Master Thomas Hesketh, a diligent searcher of simples." Again, Gerard hears "by the relation of a learned preacher, Master Robert Abat, an excellent and diligent herbarist," that at Hatfield are found the three kinds of orchis, or in his words, "the Bee, Flie, and But terflie Satyrion." A delicate compliment seems designed by the following: "The Reverende Dr. Penny his Cistus;" but what can we make of the English name for the Venice mallow, "Good-night at nine in the forenoone"? The number of plants dedicated to saints is very great, but on this subject Gerard throws no light; perhaps we may detect in this fact the Protestant proclivities of a retainer of Lord Burghley. The doctor's pages, though rich in classical quotations, contain scarcely any references to Catholic customs. Did our author connect mistletoe with Popish enormities? He enlarges on its use in making birdlime, tells us that "it groweth upon okes and diuers other trees almost everywhere;" and yet, while we often read in his pages of flowers which served to "deck up houses," or were worn in garlands by maidens, there is no word to connect mistletoe with the great mid-winter festival. We had a strong desire to learn more about vervain. Gerard calls it "Verbena sacra, holie veruaine," and explains that it was used about their altars both by the Greeks and Romans, and notices the virtue ascribed by the ancients to a "garlande of veruaine" for the cure of headache; but on the religious purpose for which this plant was employed by the Druids he is silent. "Pliny saith if the dining-roome be sprinckled with water in which the herbe | gloomy stories connected with the manhath been steeped the guests will be the drake, concluding: "They fable further, merrier." England was "merrie England" and affirm that he who woulde take up a in Gerard's time, yet how often he calls plant thereof must tie a dogge thereunto our attention to herbs that cheer! The to pull it up, which will give a great shrike potency of borage was held to be even at the digging up; otherwise if a man greater than we had imagined. "The should do it, he should certainly die in flowers used in sallads do exhilarate and short space after; all which dreames and make the minde glad," many things being old wiues tales, you shall from hencefoorth also made of them "for the comfort of the cast out of your bookes and memorie." hart, for the driuing away of sorrowe, and Gerard and his servants had digged up increasing the ioie of the minde." Much and planted many mandrakes, yet had space is given in the Herbal to that never perceived the human shape in any newly introduced plant the "Tabaco, or root. After this enlightened judgment, Henbane of Peru." Gerard describes its we are scarcely prepared for the subject effect in one case of which he had heard. chosen by the doctor for his concluding "We have learned of a friend by observa- pages. "Having travelled from the tion affirming that a strong countrieman of grasses growing in the fenny waters, the a middle age having a dropsie tooke of it, woods, and mountaines, even vnto Libanus and being wakened out of his sleepe, itselfe, and also the sea, we are arrived to called for meate and drinke, and after that the end of our historie, thinking it not im he became perfectly whole." And again, pertinent to end with one of the maruels of "The drie leaves are used to be taken in this land." Upon this follows, with even a pipe, set on fire, and suckt." "The more than his usual minuteness of detail, priests and inchaunters of the hot coun- the history of "the Barnakle Tree, or tries do take the fume thereof until they Tree bearing Geese," specimens of which be drunken, that after they haven lien for prodigy Gerard declared he had himself dead three or fower howers, they may tell seen in different stages of transformation the people what wonders, visions, or illu- from a mussel to a fowl. We smile at sions they have seene, and so give them a such a delusion, though, mindful of the propheticall direction or foretelling (if we follies which three added centuries of ex may trust the diuell) of the successe of perience and education have not eradi. their businesse." cated from the minds of all Englishmen, we do not smile contemptuously. And yet, as we bid our old friend farewell, with grateful recognition of the services he rendered to his generation, we cannot forbear the expression of a not unreasonable regret. What would we give if, amongst the names of courtiers and learned men recorded in his Herbal we could discover one allusion worth all the rest? In this same year, 1597, when Gerard had completed his great book, William Shakespeare, after twelve laborious years spent in London, returned to Stratford-on-Avon to buy New Place. Can we doubt that he, too, had visited the Holborn garden? Perhaps a recollection of the doctor's herb borders rose before him when he made Perdita in the "Winter's Tale" discourse of "hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram,” Even sea-weeds and fungi found their place in "The Historie of Plants." Here is a curious bit of information. Sea-lung wort "groweth upon rocks within the sea, but especially among oisters, and in greater plentie among those which are called Walflete oisters; it is very well knowne even to the poore oister women which carry oisters to sell up and down, and are greatly desirous of the said mosse for the decking and beautifying of their oisters, to make them sell the better; this mosse they call oister-greene." The following passage is suggestive of the loneliness and scanty population of our country three centuries ago: "Fusse bals or puckfists" were used by people "in some places of England to kill or smoulder their bees, when they woulde driue the hives, and bereaue the poore bees of their meate, houses, and liues; these are also used in some places where neighbors dwell farre a sunder to carrie and reserve fire from place to place." Gerard's attitude to wards the superstitions of his day is a curious study. He narrates at length the The marygold that goes to bed with the sun But our regret is needless, as it is vain. From Chambers' Journal. RECENT PYRAMID-WORK. FEW English explorers for many years have done better work among the monuments of Egypt than Mr. W. Flinders Petrie, of which he has published an account in his interesting book on the "Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh." The first edition of this work having been rapidly exhausted, a cheap edition has recently been brought out, which places the results of his researches within the reach of the ordinary reader, the more abstruse mathematical calculations concerning the triangulation of the Pyramid and such high matters being omitted. Enough, however, remains to make the book one of special interest to the mathematician, architect, and engineer; while those who take pleasure in following a close chain of reasoning, will admire the mental processes which supplement Mr. Petrie's keen observation of facts. One might think that the Great Pyramid had been visited, inspected, measured, remeasured, and written about so often that it was completely worked out. There are no fewer than forty-eight different theories about its original intention; and those of Professor Piazzi Smyth, the astronomerroyal of Scotland, in particular, still exercise an extraordinary fascination over many minds. The professor, moreover, has the credit of having been the first to take measurements of the Great Pyramid which had any pretensions to scientific But Mr. Petrie brought to the work more delicate instruments of measurement than had ever been used on the pyramid before; and in order to obtain accurate measurements, he uncovered parts of the building, which had been covered for ages. Consequently, his exactness. observations on this well-trodden field have almost the interest of fresh discoveries. Mr. Petrie's survey was no holiday task. He worked at measurements or triangulation for about eight hours in the blazing sun every day; then, after cooking his own dinner in the tomb which he had made his temporary abode, and washing up the dishes for he had no trust in Egyptian cleanliness - he worked on till about midnight in reducing his observations, and writing out results. During his investigations of the pyramid, he often worked twenty-four hours at a stretch; for, as measurements inside could not be carried on until the day's tide of visitors had ebbed away, he worked outside until dusk, and then, after dinner, spent the night within the pyramid measuring and observing till eight o'clock in the morning, Consequently, we now have a survey of the Great Pyramid which rivals, if it does not surpass all previous work in its accuracy; and we have also some most valu able observations on some of the other pyramids, temples, and tombs of the necropolis of Memphis, and concerning the tools and methods used by the ancient Egyptians in their wonderful works. Mr. Petrie is minute in his observations of the injury that the king's chamber, the chamber containing the sarcophagus in the Great Pyramid, has sustained, apparently by an earthquake. The joints of the stones have been loosened on every side, and the great beams of the ceiling, weighing about fifty-four tons each, have been broken right through on the south side, and the chamber actually holds together only by the force of sticking and thrusting; its eventual downfall is, as Mr. Petrie says, "a mere question of time and earthquakes." As one of these cracks and many of the joints have been daubed up with mortar, it seems that the injury must have occurred before the Pyramid was finished. The sarcophagus, in which great interest was centred by Professor Piazzi Smyth's theory, as it was supposed to ex· hibit a standard for all the Pyramid dimensions, is found by Mr. Petrie to be rather a careless piece of work. Marks of the saw, which still remain, show that the masons have more than once cut deeper than they intended, and have then tried to polish away their mistakes, but without wholly succeeding. The coffer was raised to see if there were any marks underneath it to indicate that it stood in its original place; but no such marks were found. Mr. Petrie gives some interesting details relative to the change that took place in the workmanship of the Pyramid in the course of building. The site was levelled with great care, and the base laid out with wonderful exactitude. The basalt pave. ment on the east side of the Pyramid and the limestone pavement on the other sides are splendid pieces of work, the blocks of basalt being all sawn and fitted together with the greatest accuracy. The lower part of the casing, of which Mr. Petrie for the first time uncovered some blocks in situ, is exquisitely wrought, and so is the entrance passage; "the means employed for casing and cementing the blocks of soft limestone, weighing a dozen to twenty tons each, with such hair-like joints are almost inconceivable at present, |