65
OLD ESSEX GARDENERS AND THEIR
GARDENS.
By J. RAMSBOTTOM, O.B.E., M.A., Dr.Sc, Pres.L.S.
(Being a Presidential Address delivered to the Club on
26th March, 1938.)
(With One Plate.)
IN speaking of Old Essex Gardeners I am conscious of the
fact that much of what I shall say will be familiar to
many of you, but I take comfort in the thought that it would be
difficult to deal with any aspect of Essex about which this would
not be true.
The beginnings of gardening are now impossible to trace
unless we regard Francis Bacon's statement that "God Almighty
first planted a garden" as a horticultural fact.
Man by nature is a vegetarian, and must always have
gathered plants for food. He appears also from the first to have
made use of their medicinal properties. From the gathering of
plants as food and as medicine, and doubtless for other economic
purposes, it is only a small evolutionary step to the growing of
them together for convenience. It is interesting to trace the
historical records for suggestions about how and where the
practice began—but it seems probable that in every civilisation
it arose independently.
When we consider the manner in which men travelled about
the four reputed corners of the earth we may be certain that
some of the plant-lore of the old civilisations reached the shores
of this country; it is probable that the ancient Britons had
primitive ideas of plant cultivation, though, according to Strabo,
they were, as a rule, ignorant of the art of growing plants in
gardens. We must assume some knowledge of plants if only
about the mistletoe and the oak, and the self-adornment with
woad.
When the Romans colonised England we know that they
made themselves thoroughly at home and built their villas in
their accepted style. In the three and a half centuries of
their occupation they brought over many plants for their
"daily food," and the gardens of the well-to-do had their special
flowers and fruits.