is brought hither from
far countries, ascribing I wot not what great forces and solemn
estimation unto them, until they also have waxen old, after which they
have been so little regarded, if not more despised, amongst us than
our own. Examples hereof I could set down many and in many things;
but, sith my purpose is to deal at this time with gardens and
orchards, it shall suffice that I touch them only, and show our
inconstancy in the same, so far as shall seem and be convenient for my
turn. I comprehend therefore under the word "garden" all such grounds
as are wrought with the spade by man's hand, for so the case
requireth.

Of wine I have written already elsewhere sufficiently, which commodity
(as I have learned further since the penning of that book) hath been
very plentiful in this island, not only in the time of the Romans, but
also since the Conquest, as I have seen by record; yet at this present
have we none at all (or else very little to speak of) growing in this
island, which I impute not unto the soil, but the negligence of my
countrymen. Such herbs, fruits, and roots also as grow yearly out of
the ground, of seed, have been very plentiful in this land, in the
time of the first Edward, and after his days; but in process of time
they grew also to be neglected, so that from Henry the Fourth till the
latter end of Henry the Seventh and beginning of Henry the Eighth,
there was little or no use of them in England, but they remained
either unknown or supposed as food more meet for hogs and savage
beasts to feed upon than mankind. Whereas in my time their use is not
only resumed among the poor commons. I mean of melons, pompons,
gourds, cucumbers, radishes, skirets,[1] parsnips, carrots, cabbages,
navews,[2] turnips, and all kinds of salad herbs--but also fed upon as
dainty dishes at the tables of delicate merchants, gentlemen, and the
nobility, who make their provision yearly for new seeds out of strange
countries, from whence they have them abundantly. Neither do they now
stay with such of these fruits as are wholesome in their kinds, but
adventure further upon such as are very dangerous and hurtful, as the
verangenes, mushrooms, etc., as if nature had ordained all for the
belly, or that all things were to be eaten for whose mischievous
operation the Lord in some measure hath given and provided a remedy.

[1] A vegetable something like a carrot.

[2] A kind of turnip.

Hops in time past were plenti