plan (says the late Mr. Dunster in his edition
of Phillips's Cyder) of writing the Provincial History of his native
county, a work for which he was eminently qualified, not only by his
great and general learning, but as being particularly an excellent
naturalist and antiquary. After having made a considerable progress, he
abandoned his design, and, which is still more to be lamented, destroyed
the valuable materials which he had collected." I merely introduce this
to state, that from Mr. Brome, much information, in all likelihood,
might have been gathered respecting Dr. Beale. We have to regret, that
time and mortality, have now obliterated every fading trace of
contemporary recollection of a man, who, in his day, was so highly
esteemed.[32]

ROBERT SHARROCK, Archdeacon of Winchester, and Rector of Bishop's
Waltham, and of Horewood. Wood, in his Athenae, says, "he was accounted
learned in divinity, in the civil and common law, and very knowing in
vegetables, and all appertaining thereunto. He published The History of
the Propagation and Improvement of Vegetables, by the concurrence of art
and nature. _Oxford_, 1660, 8vo., and 1672, 8vo.: an account of which
book you may see in the Phil. Trans. No. 84, page 5002." He also
published Improvements to the Art of Gardening; or an exact Treatise on
Plants. _London_, 1694; folio. This must have been a posthumous work, as
he died in 1684.

---- ILIFFE, in 1670, published in 12mo. The compleat Vineyard.

JOHN REA, the author of "Flora, Ceres, and Pomona." It is enriched by a
frontispiece engraved by D. Loggan. He dedicates the above folio, in
1665, to Lord Gerard, of Gerard's Bromley. His lordship, it seems, about
that time, determined to erect that noble mansion, which Plot has given
us a plate of; and Rea, in this folio, enumerates those plants, fruits,
and flowers, which he thinks this then-intended garden ought to be
furnished with; and a small bit, or a piece or parcel, of which once
most sumptuous garden, Plot gives us. "Altho' (says Rea) our country
cannot boast the benignity of that beautiful planet which meliorates
their fruit in Italy, France, and Spain; yet, by reflection from good
walks, well gravelled walks, the choice of fit kinds, we may plentifully
partake the pleasure, and yearly enjoy the benefit, of many delicious
fruits: as also the admiration and delight in the infinite varieties of
elegant forms, various colours, and numerous kinds of noble plants, and
be