20 trace of contemporary recollection of a man, who, in his day, was so highly esteemed.* ROBERT SHARROCK, Archdeacon of Winchester, and Rector of Bishop's Waltham, and of Horewood. Wood, in his Athenæ, 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. Vineyard. ILIFFE, in 1670, published in 12mo. The compleat 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, * In the above tract of Dr. Beale's, he thus breaks out in praise of the Orchards of this deep and rich county:-"From the greatest person to the poorest cottager, all habitations are encompassed with orchards, and gardens, and in most places our hedges are enriched with rows of fruit trees, pears or apples. All our villages, and generally all our highways, (all our vales being thick set with rows of villages), are in the spring time sweetened and beautified with the blossomed trees, which continue their changeable varieties of ornament, till (in the end of autumn), they fill our garners with pleasant fruit, and our cellars with rich and winy liquors. Orchards, being the pride of our county, do not only sweeten, but also purify the am us. 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 "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 beautiful flowers, some whereof have been heretofore handled by a renowned person of your name; but since his time, nature hath discovered many new varieties, not known to former ages, as I hope shortly will appear in your own collections, gloriously adorning your spacious garden, which I wish may correspond, both in fashion and furniture, with that noble structure to which it appertaineth. Accept then, my honoured lord, this humble offering, which may possibly live to do you service, when I am dust and ashes, and, according to my highest ambition, remain as a testimony of my sincerest gratitude for the many favours I have received from your honour, your most accomplished lady, and that noble family from whence she is descended. I should here add my prayers for your honour's preservation, did I not reserve them for my morning sacri bient air, which I conceive to conduce very much to the constant health and long lives for which our county hath always been famous. We do commonly devise a shadowy walk from our gardens, through our orchards (which is the richest, sweetest, and most embellished grove) into our coppice woods, or timber woods." Dr. Beale does not praise the whole of their land. He describes some as 66 starvy, chapt, and cheany, as the basest land upon the Welch mountains." He makes amends, however, for this, for he describes the nags bred on their high grounds, as very different from our present hackney-coach horses; they "are airey and sinewy, full of spirits and vigour, in shape like the barbe, they rid ground, and gather courage and delight in their own speed." fice, daily to be presented to the immortal deities by him that is, your most humble and most devoted servant, John Rea." He addresses also a long poem to Lady Gerard, on Flora inviting her to walk in this garden, in which he celebrates her "bright beauty." * A Lady Gerard is mentioned in two letters of Mr. Pope, to W. Fortescue, Esq. They have no date to them. They appear in Polwhele's History of Devonshire. "I have just received a note from Mrs. Blount, that she and Lady Gerard will dine here to-day." And "Lady Gerard was to see Chiswick Gardens (as I imagined) and therefore forced to go from hence by five; it was a mortification to Mrs. Blount to go, when there was a hope of seeing you and Mr. Fortescue." There are three more letters, without date, to E Throughout this long poem, John Rea's warmth much exceeds that of the most romantic lovers. One of the latter only observes, that the flowers courted the tread of his fair one's foot; that the sky grew more beautiful in her presence, and that the atmosphere borrowed new splendour from her eyes. Rea's passion seems even warmer than this. In his address to the reader, he says, "I have continued my affection to this honest recreation, without companion or encouragement; and now in my old age, (wearied and weaned from other delights) find myself more happy in this retired solitude, than in all the bustles and busie employments of my passed days." He thus concludes his book: this is all I crave: Some gentle hand with flowers may strew my grave, When as my life, as now my book, doth end. Laus Deo. Rea gives us also another very long poem, being that of "Flora to the Ladies," which he thus concludes: Silent as flow'rs may you in virtues grow, Martha Blount, written from the Wells at Bristol, and from Stowe, in which Pope says, "I have no more room but to give Lady Gerard my hearty services." And "once more my services to Lady Gerard." "I desire you will write a post-letter to my man John, at what time you would have the pine apples, to send to Lady Gerard." Probably Martha Blount's Lady Gerard was a descendant of Rea's. These love poems seem all to have been written in his old age; and that passion causes him thus to open his first book: -"Love was the inventor, and is still the maintainer, of every noble science. It is chiefly that which hath made my flowers and trees to flourish, though planted in a barren desart, and hath brought me to the knowledge I now have in plants and planting; for indeed it is impossible for any man to have any considerable collection of plants to prosper, unless he love them: for neither the goodness of the soil, nor the advantage of the situation, will do it, without the master's affection; it is that which renders them strong and vigorous; without which they will languish and decay through neglect, and soon cease to do him service. I have seen many gardens of the new model, in the hands of unskilful persons, with good walls, walks and grass-plots; but in the most essential adornments so deficient, that a green meadow is a more delightful object; there nature alone, without the aid of art, spreads her verdant carpets, spontaneously embroidered with many pretty plants and pleasing flowers, far more inviting than such an immured nothing. And as noble fountains, grottoes, statues, &c. are excellent ornaments and marks of magnificence, so all such dead works in gardens, ill done, are little better than blocks in the way to intercept the sight, but not at all to satisfy the understanding. A choice collection of living beauties, rare plants, flowers and fruits, are indeed the wealth, glory, and delight of a garden." He seems enamoured with tulips. He describes no less than one hundred and ninety different sorts. He calls them "Flora's choicest jewels, and the most glorious ornaments of the best gardens. Such is their rarity and excellence, and so numerous are the varieties, that it is not possible any one person in the world should be able to express, or comprehend the half of them, every new spring discovering many new diversities never before observed, either arising from the seeds of some choice kinds, the altering of off-sets, or by the busy and secret |