OLD ESSEX GARDENERS AND THEIR GARDENS. 67
sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to King Alfred. The first
herbal printed in England was the so-called "Bancke's Herball"
of 1525, which, though popular, was less so than "The
Grete Herball," which appeared the following year. William
Turner's "A New Herball" of 1551-68, is the first important
botanical work in English. The friend of Ridley and Latimer
at a period when religious fervour had political consequences,
Turner found it expedient to spend some of his time abroad,
and thus had opportunity to study at the recently established
botanic garden at Bologna under Ghini, the first to give pro-
fessional lectures on botany, and, incidentally, the initiator of the
art of drying plants to form herbaria.
When studying these first botanical results of the revival of
learning we have to keep in mind that this was the period of
voyages of exploration and of the foundation of botanical gardens.
Turner, who laid out the gardens of the Duke of Somerset at
Syon House across the river from Kew Gardens, shows an interest-
ing mingling of the old and new ideas when he states that he
"taught the truthe of certeyne plantes . . . and because I
"would not be lyke unto a cryer that cryeth a lost horse in the
"marketh, and telleth all the markes and tokens that he hath, and
"yet never sawe the horse, nether coulde knowe the horse if he sawe
"him: I wente into Italye and into diverse partes of Germany, to
"knowe and se the herbes myselfe." Gerard's "The Herball or
Generall Historie of Plantes " of 1597, is the best known of the
English herbals. John Gerard was a barber-surgeon, but was
more noted as a gardener. He superintended Lord Burleigh's
gardens in the Strand and at Theobalds and had himself a famous
garden in Holborn commemorated in the recent change of Little
Saffron Hill to Herball Hill.
A garden which was well-known to Gerard for its exotic
plants was that of WILLIAM COYS at Stubbers, North Okington.
This garden is famous in the annals of horticulture as it was
there that the Yucca first flowered in England in 1604. It is
also from this garden that the ivy-leaved toadflax (Linaria
cymbalaria)1 spread until it has every appearance of being native
on walls throughout the country. The gardens at Stubbers,
though they still remain, have been much altered, but it is
1 Cf. G. S. Gibson. The Flora of Essex, p. 220, "old wall at Stubbers : F."