middle of the fifteenth century, and the wood of the tree known by the name of "masere;" whence, probably, the name given to those wooden bowls, so much prized in medieval times, called mazers. It has been supposed that those vessels derived their appellation from the Dutch word maeser, signifying a maple, and it is probable they were sometimes made of that material, as they were occasionally of the ash and other woods; yet the timber of the walnut tree being often beautifully variegated would supply a material in every respect equal, if not superior, to the common maple. Nuts were cultivated in England in early times in order to obtain oil. It was estimated by an English writer of the early part of the fourteenth century, that one quarter of nuts ought to yield four gallons of oil', but he does not specify any particular sort of nut. Little can be said with certainty respecting the varieties of culinary vegetables cultivated in England previously to the fifteenth century. The cabbage tribe was doubtless well known in the earliest times, and generally reared during the middle ages of leguminous plants the pea and bean were grown in the thirteenth century; the latter it will be recollected was among the products of the earl of "Take many rype walenottes and water hem a while, and put hem in a moiste pytt, and hile hem, and ther shalbe grawe therof a grett stoke that we calle masere." Nicholas Bollarde's version of Godefridus super Palladium, MS. Har. 116, fo. 158. h See Arch. Journal, vol. ii. p. 262. i "E un quarter de noyz deit respoundre de iiij. galons de oille." The title of this curious tract is, " Ici aprent la manere coment hom deit charger baillifs e provoz sur lur acounte rendre de un maner. E coment hom deit ma ner garder." The treatise immediately following it, in the same manuscript, purports to have been written by Sir Walter de Henlee, knight-" Ceste dite fist Sire Water de Henlee chivaler"from the character of the writing in each being the same it may be conjectured with probability, that he was the author of both works. Add. MS. 6159, fo. 220. The oil of small nuts, "minutarum nucium," is often named on the Liberate Rolls of the time of Henry the Third. Lincoln's garden in Holborn. The chief esculent root was probably beet, which is mentioned by Necham. The pot herbs and sweet herbs cultivated and used from a remote period, were the same which are enumerated by our native writers on horticulture of the early part of the seventeenth century k. Of salads the lettuce, rocket, mustard, watercress, and hop, are noticed by Necham. Onions, garlic, and leeks appear to have been the only alliaceous plants in use before the year 1400. With these remarks we may quit the kitchen, for the flower-garden. Our invaluable authority, Alexander Necham, says, a "noble garden" should be arrayed with roses, lilies, sunflowers, violets and poppies; he mentions also the narcissus (N. pseudonarcissus ?) The rose seems to have been cultivated from the most remote time; early in the thirteenth century we find King John sending a wreath of roses to his lady, par amours, at Ditton; roses and lilies were among the plants bought for the royal garden at Westminster in 1276: the annual rendering of a rose is one of the commonest species of quit-rent named in ancient conveyances. Of all the flowers, however, known to our ancestors, the gilly-flower or clove pink', (clou-de-giroflée), was the commonest, and to a certain degree the most esteemed. Mr. Loudon has stated, erroneously, that the cruelties of the duke of Alva in 1567, were the occasion of our receiving through the Flemish weavers, gilly-flowers, carnations, and Provins roses. The gilly-flower had been known and prized in England centuries before: at the end of the sixteenth century, Lawson, who terms it the king of flowers, except the rose, boasted that he had gilly-flowers k Compare Lawson's" Country Housewife's Garden," chapters 7 and 8. Here it may be remarked that Mr. Loudon in his "Encyclopædia of Gardening" has attributed the introduction of many pot U and sweet herbs to the sixteenth century which were certainly known here long before. 'Dianthus Caryophyllus. of nine or ten severall colours, and divers of them as bigge as roses. Of all flowers (save the Damask rose) they are the most pleasant to sight and smell. Their use is much in ornament, and comforting the spirites, by the sence of smelling." There was a variety of this flower well known in early times as the wall gilly-flower or beeflower, "because growing in walles, even in winter, and good for Bees m" The reserved rent, "unius clavi gariofili," which is of such frequent occurrence in medieval deeds relating to land, meant simply the render of a gilly-flower, although it has been usually understood to signify the payment of a clove of commerce; the incorrectness of this reading must be apparent if it be recollected that the clove was scarcely known in Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when this kind of reserved rent was most common. Another flower of common growth in medieval orchards, or gardens, was the pervinke, or periwinkle ; "There sprang the violet all newe, Such plente grew there nor in the mede."-CHAucer. As this plant will flower under the shade of trees or lofty walls, it was well adapted to ornament the securely enclosed, and possibly sombre, gardens of early times. From an early period the nurture of bees had occupied attention in England; the numerous entries in Domesday in which honey is mentioned shew how much that product was employed for domestic purposes in the eleventh century. Among other uses to which it was applied was the making of beer or ale (cervisia.) When the duke of Saxony visited England in the reign of Henry the Second, The "Country Housewife's Garden," p. 14. the sheriff of Hampshire had an allowance in his account for corn, barley, and honey which he had purchased to brew beer for the duke's use ". An apiary was generally attached to a medieval garden, and formed part of the stock, which according to the usage of early days, was sometimes let out to farm. In the fourteenth century an English writer, whom we have before quoted, observed that every hive of bees ought to yield, one with another, two of issue, as some yielded none and others three or four yearly. In some places, he adds, bees have no food given to them during winter, but where they are fed a gallon of honey may suffice to feed eight hives yearly. He estimated that if the honey were taken only once in two years each hive would yield two gallons. It is not probable that much art was shewn in the laying out of gardens or orchards before the fifteenth century. Water being an absolute necessity, every large garden would be supplied with a pond or well, and it appears from ancient illuminations that fountains, or conduits, often of elaborate design, were sometimes erected in the gardens of the wealthy. Our ancestors seem to have been very fond of the greensward, and any resemblance to modern flower-beds is rarely seen in the illustrations of old manuscripts; where flowers are represented so planted they are generally surrounded by a wattled fence. "Madox's Hist. of the Exchequer. "E chescoune rouche de eez deit respoundre de deus rouches par an de lour issue, lun parmy lautre. Kar acoune ne rent nule, e acoune iij. ou iiij. par an. E en acoun lu lour doune lom a manger rien de tout le iver, e en acou lu lour doune lom, e la ou hom lour doune a manger si pount il pestre viij. rouches tot le yver de un galon de mel par an. E si vous nel quillez fors en ij. aunz, si averes ij. galouns de mel de chescoune rouche."-Add. MS. 6159, fo. 220. CHAPTER IV. EXISTING REMAINS. AYDON CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND. ALTHOUGH this building is now, and has been for some time, called a castle, it was known in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the name of "Aydon Halle," as was also its dependent manor. It is indeed only a border house carefully fortified. "The general plan is a long irregular line with two rather extensive enclosures or courts formed by walls, besides one smaller one within. On two sides is a steep ravine, on the others the outer wall has a kind of ditch but very shallow. The original chief entrance is yet by an external flight of steps, which had a covered roof to the upper story, and so far partaking of the features of the earlier houses: it contains at least four original fireplaces. Some of the windows are square headed, with two lights"." The stable is remarkable for the total absence of wood in its construction, the mangers being of stone, and, as Hutchinson remarks, was evidently contrived for the preservation of cattle during an assault. The windows of the stable are small oblong apertures in the wall widely splayed internally and secured by iron bars. Among other details worthy of notice, is a good example of a drain. The number of fireplaces in this building may be attributed |