The Mirror Of Literature, Amusement, And Instruction | Page 6

quote the history of either Fruit entire, would not so well denote the
character of the work as would a few of the most striking passages in
the descriptions. In the introductory chapter we are pleased with the
following passage on Monastic Gardens.
"The monks, after the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity,
appear to have been the only gardeners. As early as 674, we have a
record, describing a pleasant and fruit-bearing close at Ely, then
cultivated by Brithnoth, the first Abbot of that place. The ecclesiastics
subsequently carried their cultivation of fruits as tar as was compatible
with the nature of the climate, and the horticultural knowledge of the
middle ages. Whoever has seen an old abbey, where for generations
destruction only has been at work, must have almost invariably found it
situated in one of the choicest spots, both as to soil and aspect; and if
the hand of injudicious improvement has not swept it away, there is
still the 'Abbey-garden.' Even though it has been wholly

neglected--though its walls be in ruins, covered with stone-crop and
wall-flower, and its area produce but the rankest weeds--there are still
the remains of the aged fruit trees--the venerable pears, the delicate
little apples, and the luscious black cherries. The chestnuts and the
walnuts may have yielded to the axe, and the fig trees and vines died
away;--but sometimes the mulberry is left, and the strawberry and the
raspberry struggle among the ruins. There is a moral lesson in these
memorials of the monastic ages. The monks, with all their faults, were
generally men of peace and study; and these monuments show that they
were improving the world, while the warriors were spending their lives
to spoil it. In many parts of Italy and France, which had lain in
desolation and ruin from the time of the Goths, the monks restored the
whole surface to fertility; and in Scotland and Ireland there probably
would not have been a fruit tree till the sixteenth century, if it had not
been for their peaceful labours. It is generally supposed that the
monastic orchards were in their greatest perfection from the twelfth to
the fifteenth century."
Again, the
_NATURALIZATION OF PLANTS._
"The large number of our native plants (for we call those native which
have adapted themselves to our climate) mark the gradual progress of
our civilization through the long period of two thousand years; whilst
the almost infinite diversity of exotics which a botanical garden offers,
attest the triumphs of that industry which has carried us as merchants or
as colonists over every region of the earth, and has brought from every
region whatever can administer to our comforts and our luxuries,--to
the tastes and the needful desires of the humblest as well as the highest
amongst us. To the same commerce we owe the potato and the
pine-apple; the China rose, whose flowers cluster round the
cottage-porch, and the Camellia which blooms in the conservatory. The
addition even of a flower, or an ornamental shrub, to those which we
already possess, is not to be regarded as a matter below the care of
industry and science. The more we extend our acquaintance with the
productions of nature, the more are our minds elevated by

contemplating the variety, as well as the exceeding beauty, of the works
of the Creator. The highest understanding does not stoop when
occupied in observing the brilliant colour of a blossom, or the graceful
form of a leaf. Hogarth, the great moral painter, a man in all respects of
real and original genius, writes thus to his friend Ellis, a distinguished
traveller and naturalist:--'As for your pretty little seed-cups, or vases,
they are a sweet confirmation of the pleasure Nature seems to take in
superadding an elegance of form to most of her works, wherever you
find them. How poor and bungling are all the imitations of Art! When I
have the pleasure of seeing you next, we will sit down, _nay, kneel
down if you will_, and admire these things.'
* * * * *
"It is one of the proudest attributes of man, and one which is most
important for him to know, that he can improve every production of
nature, if he will but once make it his own by possession and
attachment. A conviction of this truth has rendered the cultivation of
fruits, in the more polished countries of Europe, as successful as we
now behold it."
The work then divides into _Fruits of the Temperate Climates_, and of
_Tropical Climates_; the first are subdivided into Fleshy, Pulpy, and
Stone Fruits and Nuts, in preference to a strict geographical
arrangement. Under "the Apple" occur some very judicious
observations on
_CIDER._
"The cider counties of England have always been considered as highly
interesting. They lie something