rrie tree, whose fruite hee had
of purpose kept backe from ripening, at the least one month after all
Cherries had taken their farewell of England. This secret he performed,
by straining a Tent or cover of canvas ouer the whole tree, and wetting
the same now and then with a scoope or horne, as the heate of the
weather required; and so, by with-holding the sunne-beames from
reflecting vppon the berries, they grew both great, and were very long
before they had gotten their perfect cherrie-colour: and when hee was
assured of her Maiesties comming, he remoued the Tent, and a few sunny
daies brought them to their full maturitie."

In the 2nd vol. of _Censura Litt._ is some information respecting Sir
Hugh.

GABRIEL PLATTES, who (Harte says) "had a bold, adventurous cast of
mind." The author of "Herefordshire Orchards," calls him "a singular
honest man." Mr. Weston says, "This author may be considered as an
original genius in husbandry. This ingenious writer, whose labours were
productive of plenty and riches to others, was so destitute of the
common necessaries of life, as to perish with hunger and misery. He was
found dead in the streets, without a shirt to cover him, to the eternal
disgrace of the government he lived under. He bequeathed his papers to
S. Hartlib, whom a contemporary author addresses in this manner: 'none
(but yourself, who wants not an enlarged heart, but a fuller hand to
supply the world's defect,) being found, with some few others, to
administer any relief to a man of so great merit.' Another friend of
Hartlib's, gives Plattes the following character: 'certainly that man
had as excellent a genius in agriculture, as any that ever lived in this
nation before him, and was the most faithful seeker of his ungrateful
country's good. I never think of the great judgement, pure zeal, and
faithful intentions of that man, and withal of his strange sufferings,
and manner of death, but am struck with amazement, that such a man
should be suffered to fall down dead in the streets for want of food,
whose studies tended in no less than providing and preserving food for
whole nations, and that with as much skill and industry, so without
pride or arrogance towards God or man.'--A list of his many works
appears in Watts's Bibl. Brit. and also in Weston's intelligent
Catalogue; and much information is given of Plattes in vol. 2 of the
Censura Litteraria. Two of his works appear to be,

1. Treatise of Husbandry; 1633