www.NPS.co.uk

Kenneth Penn

January 2008

BAU 1618

© NAU Archaeology

For

South Holland District Council

An Archaeological Desk-based Surveyof Ayscoughfee Hall Gardens,

Spalding, Lincolnshire

Report № 1618

NAU Archaeology

NAU Archaeology

Report № 1618

An Archaeological Desk-based Survey of

Ayscoughfee Hall Gardens, Spalding, Lincolnshire

For

South Holland District Council

Kenneth Penn

January 2008

© NAU Archaeology

Project checklist Date Project overseen by Andy Hutcheson Draft complete Kenneth Penn 19/12/07 Graphics complete Michael Feather 30/01/08 Edit complete Richard Hoggett 10/01/08 Signed off Andy Hutcheson 31/01/08

NAU Archaeology Scandic House 85 Mountergate

Norwich NR1 1PY

T 01603 756150 F 01603 756190 E andy.hutcheson@NPS.co.uk www.NPS.co.uk www.NAU.org.uk

Contents Summary 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Geology and Topography 3.0 Historical Background 4.0 Analysis: The Documents Entries in the SGS Minutes 5.0 The Maps 6.0 Pictorial Evidence 7.0 Timeline 8.0 Conclusions

Acknowledgements Bibliography Appendix 1: Extracts from the Minute Books of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society Appendix 2: Extracts from various letters and other materials Appendix 3: Selection of gardening books available in the Spalding Gentlemen’s

Society library

Figures Front cover Yew trees at Ayscoughfee Hall Frontispiece The Johnson coat of Arms Figure 1 Site location Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of 1903 Figure 2 Ayscoughfee Hall: western facade shown in sketch of 1743 (Minute

Book) Figure 3 Ayscoughfee Hall: eastern facade from the gardens Figure 4 Grundy’s map of 1732 (detail) Figure 5 The exhedra in the yew hedges Figure 6 The canal Figure 7 The Ice House Figure 8 Armstrong’s map of 1779 Back cover Yew tree avenue

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Location: Ayscoughfee Hall, Spalding, Lincolnshire District: South Holland District Council Grid Ref.: TF 2490 2236

Summary A desk-based assessment of the gardens of Ayscoughfee Hall was undertaken by NAU Archaeology for South Holland District Council. This work established that the medieval division into separate plots of the area east of the River Welland has to some extent structured the development of the landscape. There are two great houses of late-medieval date here: Ayscoughfee Hall and Gayton House. John Grundy’s map of 1732 shows both of these houses and depicts Maurice Johnson’s gardens. These gardens were laid out c.1730, possibly by William Sands. Evidence for the plants and flowers found in the gardens can be gleaned from the Society’s Minute Books and Maurice Johnson’s own letters. These suggest the existence in the 18th century of elms and walnut trees in the gardens (besides the yews) and might also imply that Johnson had built a hothouse. Like many others at the time, Johnson had an interest in rare and exotic plants, and also in plants used in medicine. The broad layout of the gardens has changed little since they were laid out, although the loss of the avenue (of elms?) and of the garden house are significant, and the stables and the probable greenhouse are long gone. Municipal ownership of the gardens has seen the creation of amenities and the War Memorial was set up in 1922.

1.0 Introduction Ayscoughfee Hall stands on the east bank of the Welland in grounds totalling some three hectares. These grounds lie between the river Welland, Love Lane and Church Street; a block of land that also contains the parish church, the former site Gayton House (next to Ayscoughfee Hall) and an early 16th-century building which is presently the White Horse public house (Fig. 1). This archaeological desk-based assessment was undertaken in accordance with a Project Design and Method Statement prepared by NAU Archaeology. This report provides an assessment of the gardens, using information from existing reports, and information from material in Ayscoughfee Hall, the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, the British Library and the Bodleian Library. This report includes a brief review of the evidence for the early landscape and its possible development from the early medieval period.

2.0 Geology and Topography Ayscoughfee Hall lies in the centre of the ancient town of Spalding, Lincolnshire, on the eastern bank of the river Welland. Spalding stands on the low line of silts that forms a barrier around the mouth of the Wash, at the point where the river Welland, flowing across the former freshwater peat fens to the south, passes through the silts and northwards across reclaimed marine silts to the Wash. The Welland flows through the town and joins the sea some 15km to the north.

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The town stands at about 7m OD, with Ayscoughfee Hall next to the river bank. Here the river in embanked and the water level was once a little higher than it is today. The town was a minor port in the medieval period, and the priory had its own wharf in the town, on the west bank.

3.0 Historical Background Although Ayscoughfee Hall was built in the middle of the 15th century, its history begins much earlier, with the creation of three manors in Spalding. These three manors are recorded in Domesday Book (1086). The main manor belonged to Ivo Taillebois and lay to the north of the town, at Spalding ‘castle’ (so-called from its setting within a later moat). A second, smaller manor was, in fact, a berewick of Crowland and was a cell of Crowland Abbey. This cell was turned into a priory by Ivo (Page 1988, 118–9; Foster and Longley 1976). It was the priory that came to dominate the town and its development during the medieval period: the marketplace was laid out alongside the wall of the priory. The priory was closed at the Dissolution in the 1530s and its materials were reused throughout the town. The third manor was held by Guy de Craon. Its location is unknown, although the situation of the priory and the ‘castle’ site suggest that this manor may have lain on the eastern side of the river Welland and possibly occupied all or part of the block in which the church now stands. In Domesday Book, Guy de Craon held one carucate in his own hands (in demesne) and another was held by his tenants (a carucate being an area of around 120 acres). There was a chapel dedicated to St Thomas the Martyr here, a dedication which clearly post-dates 1170, and remains of this chapel were incorporated into the church, which was relocated here from the priory site in 1284 as a part of the planned development of the town. The river Welland is a ‘canal’ in the Dutch manner, having been improved by Vermuyden in the 17th century and more so during the 20th by the Lincolnshire River Board, thus lowering the water level (Roberts 1975, 37). Even so, pictorial evidence suggests that the water was rather higher than it is today until quite recent times. There is a long tradition that Ayscoughfee hall was built in the 1420s by Richard Alwyn, a wool merchant, and that the hall lies close to the de Craon manor site. In his early investigations, Roberts thought that the building might have had a 13th-century origin, but there is no good evidence for this (Roberts 1975, 37). However, a priory charter of Samson, son of Humpe, grants to prior John, land that laid between the road from the Great Bridge to Crowland and the lands of Roger of the Almonry, Gilbert de Aula and Theobald of Spaldwick. According to the charter, access was from the east via a piece of land 200 feet long and 8 feet wide. This land was 360 feet long, 20 feet wide at the western end and 35 feet wide at the eastern end. The reference to Gilbert de Aula (‘of the hall‘) suggests that a hall already stood close by in the medieval period (transcript of charters of Spalding Priory 73). Recent research has shown that Ayscoughfee Hall was built c.1450 in a single campaign, although the sequence that the building work was carried out led earlier writers to postulate a free-standing northern wing, with an adjacent cross wing or hall, the south wing being a later addition (Pursglove 1996, 1). The hall may have been built by Richard Alwyn or by a member of the Ayscough family (who gave it

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his name), or even by some collaborative effort (FAS 2005). A direct relationship with the Lincolnshire Ayscoughs is difficult to prove, as their ownership in the 1500s is evidenced only by a mention of their holding property in Spalding in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 (Snowdon 2007).

During its first phase the Hall had two fronts, with main front at the west, and depicted in a sketch of 1743 (Fig. 2), and a garden front to the east. These fronts provided an imposing façade to the road to the west and the east front faced the garden (Fig. 3). Each front was marked by a two-storey oriel window lighting the medieval great hall. The tower on the north side stood above a brick-vaulted basement with a door to the front (west) side: this may have been a private entrance to the house for the owner, so he could reach the private chambers without passing through the hall (FAS 2005). What form the gardens took during these early phases of the buildings remains unknown, for it was not until the early 18th century that the gardens were laid out at the behest of Maurice Johnson II. In addition to the gardens, Johnson also had the 15th-century kitchen attached to the south cross-wing removed and had new windows put in. The relationship between Ayscoughfee Hall and Gayton House, the large medieval house that once stood to the immediate north of the hall, is not clear. Gayton House was probably erected by the Gayton family in the later 15th century and was only demolished in 1959; the house was intimately connected to Ayscoughfee Hall and their later histories run side-by-side. Roberts suggested that the ‘houses’ of the Guild of St Thomas and the Blessed Virgin Mary were re-used in Gayton House when it was built in 1481 (Roberts 1975, 37). Snowdon has suggested that Gayton House might have been where the Guild met and the buildings attached the Guildhouse or chapel. Snowdon points to the timber framing, the outside staircase and the stables as evidence for this hypothesis (Snowdon 2007, 8 and 79).

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Gayton House came into the hands of the Amblers family in 1684. When William Ambler died in 1743, his daughter, the wife of Maurice Johnson II, inherited the house and thus brought it to Maurice Johnson’s estate. Ayscoughfee Hall appears to have passed to the Hall family (who married into the Gayton family) and then to the Wimberley family. It was sold to Thomas Wimberley in 1602 and, when he died in 1616, an inventory was carried out on Ayscoughfee Hall. This inventory lists, inter alia, a yard and stable, and ‘brick in a clamp’, some tiles and ‘moulds for bricks’ in the house; in the stable was a horse mill (LAO Inv 118/164). This suggestion of materials for building, and even of brick-making on the site, has been linked to the construction of early 17th-century service rooms at the southern end of the house (Glenn and Taylor 1999, 3). It is even possible that the canal in the garden was originally a clay quarry for brick-making. When the next owner, Nicholas Evington, died in 1630, there was ‘in the millhouse…item a horse mill with 2 pair of stones’ (Glenn and Taylor 1999, 3). The hall passed through various hands before it came to Dymoke Walpole, from whom it passed to his son John (b.1612). John Walpole sold the hall to John Johnson of Pinchbeck in 1658 (Pursglove 1996, 8), who son Francis (d.1685) and grandson John (d.1683) subsequently inherited it. Thus, in 1683 Ayscoughfee hall passed to his sister Jane Johnson and to her husband Maurice Johnson (no relation). In 1688, their son, Maurice Johnson II was born there.

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Maurice Johnson II, Antiquary (1688–1755) Maurice Johnson II went on to become a barrister and one of the early antiquaries, an associate of Newton and Stukeley, the founder of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society and, in 1707, one of the founders of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Maurice II is the central figure in the history of Ayscoughfee Hall and was responsible for the establishment of the present gardens. Maurice Johnson was a young barrister with a career in London, whose family home was in Spalding at Ayscoughfee Hall. Being partly in London and partly in Spalding, he made moves to set up a provincial version of the Society of Antiquaries of London, with the backing of his friend William Stukeley, another local man and just a year older than Maurice; he too was one of the founders of the London Society. This was not the first such Society set up to pursue a new interest in Science. The Royal Society was founded in 1660 with the support of King Charles II and encompassed all branches of knowledge, including those of an historical nature. This was a time when experiment and enquiry were subjects for gentlemanly pursuit, with Newton and Wren among the leaders. However, under Newton, the character of the Royal Society became more narrowly scientific, with historical and antiquarian interests having a smaller, even unwelcome, place. In 1707, people like William Stukeley (1687–1765) and Maurice Johnson (1688–1755) were amongst the founders of the Society of Antiquaries. This grew in part out of the coffee-house society of the time, where men would meet to take coffee and discuss things of interest, stimulated by the magazines and newspapers of the day. Maurice Johnson was keen to bring this awareness to his home town. The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society was the outcome, and it met every two weeks to read the latest London journals, drink coffee and discuss antiquarian interests. The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society was firmly established in 1712 and at first met in Ayscoughfee Hall, where one room was fitted up as a museum, with a ‘pretty garden’ close by. Maurice Johnson II was Secretary from 1709–44 and the President 1745–55. Maurice II’s father kept a separate house, shown on Grundy’s map of 1732 (Fig. 4). This house stood on the north side of Church Street, opposite the church and had a garden that stretched to the rear of the adjoining properties.

The Gardens In around 1730, Maurice Johnson laid out his gardens, probably with the help of the architect William Sands. In 1749, they collaborated again on a design for a Triumphal Archway, to celebrate the Peace between England and Scotland (see below). One of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society’s members was an engineer, John Grundy, and upon his election in 1732 he presented a survey of Spalding to the Society. This map included the two great houses on the east side of the Welland and is a most useful source for researching the early 18th-century gardens (Fig. 4).

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The character of the gardens was doubtless influenced by the fashions at the time and informed by Maurice Johnson’s strong connections with London. Amongst the gardeners of the time, Stephen Switzer was one of the most prominent and also an acquaintance of Johnson. Switzer was trained in the continental styles and advocated the ‘French Style’ of garden, although there are questions about the interpretation of these styles in England; in particular, the ways in which the strict Geometric Style was applied, the attractions of irregularity and the creation of a ‘natural wilderness’. One might note that the idea of such ‘parks’ or gardens came from Holland, which was, like England, a Protestant country with houses of the wealthy gentry, professional classes and merchant bourgeoisie, who had enclosed grounds rather than extensive parks. These ideas were strengthened with the accession of William of Orange in 1688. In the Low Countries, a country of small grounds set in a flat landscape, there were gardens turned inwards, with separate compartments, often arranged around a central axis, and their perimeters were defined by hedges and lines of trees. Extremely popular were immaculate topiary and parterres, limited in scale, in which ‘cutwork’ – in which patterns were made by shaped flower beds, cut into turf, with bright flowers – was a feature. In flat landscapes the use of moats and canals was important. Another feature in gardens was the display of rare and exotic plants and flowers, more appropriate for the smaller more intimate garden than the longer views of the park.

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It may be that we see some Dutch influence at Ayscoughfee Hall, with hedges, compartments and the courts arranged around the two axes, one to the south across two lawns or ‘plats’ into the wilderness, and another to the east, along the avenues to the garden house. The compartment in between was where the greenhouses and kitchen might have been found. In the 1740s, Maurice Johnson set up four lead statues (these were sold after war damage, although their bases remain in the gardens). There are also two pyramid monuments in the gardens.

The exhedra, as Anderson and Glenn (2000, 14) call it, was located on the south walk, and forms an apse against the yew hedge here (Fig. 5); Anderson and Glenn suggest that this was possibly a place with seats so that Johnson and his colleagues could sit in the manner of the ancients to discuss academic matters. Whilst busts of philosophers might have been chosen to decorate the exedra, perhaps Maurice Johnson chose to use the lead statues that stood in the gardens until the 1990s.

It would appear analysis demonstrates that the yews are not of a single planting but were put in at various times. The yew is a tree that was being recommended by the later 17th century, especially for hedges and avenues, and particularly in towns where the debate between advocates of the Dutch style and the ‘Landscape Movement’ was abated by the need for solutions in the cramped confines of a town garden. Where the canal stands in this debate is of interest. By the later 18th century such a rigid use of water was quite out of fashion, but again, the confines

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of the garden allowed little chance of a more expansive ‘landscape’ pond (Fig. 6). There is also the possibility that the pond was there before Maurice Johnson’s time; Anderson and Glenn note that it is not related to the house in any usual way and might pre-date the layout of the gardens (Anderson and Glenn 2000, 17). As to the evidence within the pond, we know that Johnson himself deepened the pond by a foot, suggesting that it was originally very shallow and thus probably not a brick-making quarry.

A garden building once stood at the end of the east garden (shown on Grundy’s map of 1732) and may have been similar to the extant garden building at Easton Hall near Grantham (Anderson and Glenn 2000). In the area to the east of the canal, the 1887 OS map shows random flower beds and part of a wilderness walk. The four statues set up in the 1740s are indicated, with two each side of the exedra, one at the south end of the canal, and the fourth at the south-west corner of the grounds. The 20th century saw many changes made to the garden in order to make it a municipal amenity and the war memorial was built in 1922. The 1874 fountain was relocated here in 1954. As noted above, Gayton House came into the hands of Maurice Johnson following the death of his father-in-law William Ambler in 1743: since his wife Elizabeth could not hold in her own right it became part of the Johnson estate. In 1743, Gayton House became the Society headquarters, with a resident caretaker, the

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Society coadjutor, and the gardens became the Society’s Physic Garden (replacing those in Love Lane, shown on Grundy’s map). Was there a greenhouse? The Minutes and other sources mention succulents and tropical plants such as orange trees, and it is likely that there was a greenhouse here. There is a darker side to family affairs. Maurice II was in the Duke of Cumberland’s Regiment, and it is little wonder that Maurice thought of commemorating the defeat of the Jacobin Scots at Culloden in 1746. Both English and Lowland Scots praised the victory against the Jacobins, but in time, his actions against the defeated Scots prompted his nickname, Butcher of the Scots, and quickly ruined his reputation. Whether the Triumphal Arch he designed for the gardens was put up is not certain. The Society kept a collection of dried plants and flowers arranged according their perceived medicinal properties (a hortus siccus). In all this, Maurice encouraged his family, noting that they were all Botanists, even his 5-year old granddaughter. Maurice II died in 1755, Gayton House then being taken from the Society and coming back to the estate. Between 1709 and 1898, Gayton House and Ayscoughfee Hall were in the same ownership.

The Heirs of Maurice Johnson II: Maurice III, the Colonel (1714–1793) Maurice III was in the Duke of Cumberland’s regiment (though what part he played in the massacres of 1746 is unknown), but also spent time in London, which enabled him to visit Spalding and to act as agent for his father in collecting plants. We know that he was in London in 1740 and 1741, where he spent some of his time seeking plants for his father. In 1746, he wrote to his father about his father’s plan to ‘throw off’ the elms from the gardens (which may mean the east gardens). This plan seems not to have been carried out, but it is odd that Armstrong’s map of 1779 (when the son was in tenure) does not show them, whilst the map of 1840 shows a single line of trees. In 1790, when Maurice III was an old man, Lord Torrington visited Spalding and saw ‘a very ancient house of bay windows [i.e. the oriel windows], surrounded by yew hedge gardens’ (Byng 1935, 221). The next year, in 1791, the artist J.C. Nattes drew the east and the West fronts for Joseph Banks. This drawing shows clearly the typical late medieval ‘hall’ with windows through two floors, but here on both facades.

Maurice IV, The Reverend (1756–1834) and the ‘Gothic’ alterations Maurice IV succeeded in 1793, upon the death of his father. It was Maurice IV, Vicar of Moulton and Spalding, who, inheriting an out-of-date house, made the most alterations and ‘gothicised’ the building. These changes are recorded in the drawings of W. Brand in 1808, and the large painting of 1791x1808 held in the SGS. This painting shows both Gayton House and Ayscoughfee Hall, and reveals other changes. Drawings by Hilkiah Burgess made in 1818 show much the same as Nattes’ and Brand’s views, but reveal an extension at the north-east corner. An anonymous drawing of c.1821 shows the northeast extension. Brand’s drawing shows the yews in front of the Hall now cut down (Gooch 1940, 512). Clearly, the gardens were little touched: the statues remained and the canal, yew trees and grass plats survived his works.

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Maurice V (1788–1820) Maurice was curate at Moulton. His wife Frances died after childbirth, in 1815, and he died in 1820, aged 32. Maurice V died before his father and had no impact upon the Hall.

Maurice VI (1815–1864) and the ‘Mock-Tudor’ changes Maurice VI was brought up by his grandfather after the early death of his father and became a major in the South Lincolnshire Militia. He succeeded his grandfather at the age of 19 and soon after set about further changes to the house, making it ‘mock-Tudor’, probably using the architect William Todd. His work included a new façade, that is, a screen or covered porch along the west front and a new extension to the north-east. As part of this campaign to give the hall a medieval character, he built a tower at the south end of the canal; this tower was known as the Owl Tower. Following the death of one of his daughters in 1850, the Johnson family moved to Suffolk, and Ayscoughfee Hall was let out. Maurice Johnson VI died in 1864 and his wife died in 1875.

4.0 Analysis: the documents Save for Grundy’s map of 1732, there are few contemporary descriptions of the gardens, although Lord Torrington’s description in 1791 implies yew hedges already grown. One must rely on the references in the Society’s Minutes to flowers and plants and various letters to and from Maurice Johnson for further information. The Minute Books contain many references to plants or specimens of plants brought in to the Society for discussion, but it is not always clear whether they came from Maurice Johnson’s garden, the Society’s Physic Garden in Love Lane or some other Member’s garden (such as Dr Colby of Stamford, or Dr Green, the Assistant Secretary). However, it may be fairly assumed that plants from these sources would also be found at some time in Ayscoughfee Hall gardens. The Society also holds two lists or catalogues, both from seedsmen known to and recommended by Maurice Johnson: John Harrison of Jesus College Lane, Cambridge, and Stephen Switzer, by Westminster Hall, London, one of the most famous landscape gardeners of the time. Several of the best-known books about plants and gardens were also available to the Society in their Library. These include books by: P.Miller, S. Switzer, R. Bradley, Parkinson, Knowles, Chambers, Evelyn, Ray and Tournefoot. Maurice Johnson II was able to acquire seeds and plants via his friends and other connections, and his son Maurice III was his accomplice in getting seeds and plants, sometimes taking them without permission. The various letters give us some direct information about their collections and how they turned to their friends to acquire plants. A paper bag with label shows the delivery of seeds of Spanish onions and peppers, whilst his son gets him melon seeds and cuttings of pears and plums (1740) and attempts to get him orange trees (1741). We know that Maurice had a connection with the King’s garden at Richmond (that would a little later become Kew Gardens). George II inherited the gardens at

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Richmond in 1737, and installed Thomas and Robert Greening (his son) as Gardeners. It was them who created a ‘Wilderness’ garden at Richmond. The letter from Maurice III to his father shows that they used their connections at the highest level to obtain seeds and plants in the 1740s. Maurice III had a friend, Mr Fairchild, who knew the King’s gardener at Richmond, Mr Thomas Greening, one of the of most famous gardeners of the time. When seeds and plants came from abroad, Mr Fairchild was luckily on hand to take a sample of the plants and to provide a catalogue of them. The Minutes record very many plants being shown, some because they were freaks of their kind (lusus) and many are known to have had medicinal properties (as is clear from their common names), and may have also been grown in the Physic Garden (one is shown on Grundy’s map of 1732). The Minutes also provide evidence of the Society’s interest in methods of growing plants, with a discussion of growing bulbs in the necks of bottles (1731) and the proper use of hot beds or hothouses (1739). The Minutes show that in 27 September 1744 that Dr Walker had a greenhouse (and hothouse 11 October 1744) with banana plants, Coffee Berry and ‘many curious exoticks’. Stukeley’s letters reveal too, that he gave Stukeley from his gardens, pomegranate and Balm of Gilead (1728) and that Mr Johnson has the naples medlar and the icy sedum in his garden (1742). On the terrace by the canal are elm trees, which he thought to cut down in 1746, to the upset of his son, Maurice III, but they were apparently still there in 1751 and the subject of a letter to William Stukeley. His letters also reveal his love for his canal, and the keeping of a ‘wing-shot’ water-bird in his canal, which also holds carp and tench (1752). A flood in 1753 gives him the opportunity to get more fish for his canal ‘at a reasonable rate’. The hall came into the hands of the people of Spalding around 1900 and became a public amenity rather than a private family retreat. The public amenities within the garden are the War Memorial, tennis courts, an aviary and a bowling green. In 1954 the Fountain was moved here from Hall Place, where it had been set up in 1874, to commemorate the birthday of Mary Ann Johnson (1794–1874) on her 80th birthday (Ayscoughfee and its History 1923).

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Entries in the Minutes of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society (items in bold were brought in by Maurice Johnson) 1725 Double red & white Anemone 1727 Auricula Ursi (Grand Paisant)

Amaranthus Coccinei (Jasmine) Cyclamen Hyacinth Botroides (common Grape Hyacinth=Muscari Botroides) Eglantine Rose Peach

1728 Capsicum Indiacum (West Indian Peppers) Double Purple Anemone Pomegranate Seedling Pink (President) Strawberry Spinage Trachelium Americanum Cork Tree (John Johnson) Green ginger Geranium Africanum

1729 Butchers Broom Mince Pye = Calibar of Minorca Pomegranate Apple Mock Orange = Gourd A white grape Apricot Sedum/Aloe Watermelon

1730 Scarabeus Aquaticus Globe Amaranthus Arum Horminum Agreste Solanum Lethale Trachelium Americanum

1731 West Endian Wheat = Pearl Barley Chili Strawberry (Rev. Smith) Muscovite strawberry

1732 Fir Tree Tulip Double lemon coloured Ranunculus Poppy Carnation Scarlett and Black (Mr Stagg, co-adjutor)

1733 Urtica Urentis Auriculas (Mr Stagg, co-adjutor) Iris Red Beet (Pres)

1734 Gourd (President) Fennel

1735 Single Rocket/Eruca (Vice-President) 1736 Willow Rose 1737 Chilli Strawberry

Campanula Persia Double peach-leaved Bell Flower Province Rose Bud (from Bowling Green) Pear Walnuts Medlars

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1738 Tulips (Dr Green) Iris flowers (Mr Stagg co-adjutor) Root like a radish

1739 Auricula ursi (Dr Green) Discussion of Hot Beds

1741 Single White Hyacinth (Dr Green) Persian Iris (Dr Green) Golden Crocus (Dr Green) Persian Ranunculus (Dr Colby)

1742

Poppy (Mr Everard) Larkheels or Larkspur (Mr Everard) Opuntia or Indian Fig Peaches Mespilus Apii

1743 Auricula Hyacinths (RS Sedum Majus) Pine Apple (Richard Thompson) Persicaria orientalis (John Johnson)

1744 Coffee Berry (Dr Walker) Banana (Dr Walker)

1745 Medica Cochleata 1746 Lavertera Africana

Ice Plant Ficoides Africana Pine Apple Brassica Fimbriata (Dr Green)

1747 Elm Rhus Virginianum Sumac

1748 Stramonium fructu Hieracium/Auricula Muris

1750 Variegated Holly Cortex Peruvian/Jesuits bark (Mr Cox, co-adjutor) Storax (Mr Cox, co-adjutor) Tamarind (Mr Cox, co-adjutor) Lacca (Mr Cox, co-adjutor) Malus (Mr Cox, co-adjutor)

1753 A carrot with 6 roots

5.0 The Maps 1655 Sir William Dugdale The earliest map of Spalding is that by Sir William Dugdale of 1655. His plan of Spalding shows the site of the priory and grounds, the row of houses along the marketplace and the river, but shows nothing on the east side of the river, although the parish church stood here. 1732 John Grundy’s map of 1732 This map (Fig. 4) effectively records the footprint of Ayscoughfee Hall and the present gardens, and shows that in general these are much the same today, but for the erosion of the ‘soft landscape’ and the loss of several important features. This map also shows the adjacent house, Gayton House, removed by the District Council in 1959 and replaced with the present offices. This map was drawn for Maurice Johnson as Grundy’s submission to the SGS and we may assume that his house would be shown as accurately as possible.

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The landscape show by Grundy seems to be structured by the existence of several plots along the riverside, in which the grounds of Ayscoughfee Hall occupied three plots and Gayton House possibly two. Their gardens contained long east–west boundaries across the whole plot. A small, triangular plot remained at the southern end whilst the church occupies the north-east corner of the area of land between the river (Church Gate), Church Street and Love Lane. There are buildings at the extreme north-west corner, close to High Bridge, possibly an expansion of the town on to this side of the river. At the front of the house was a turning circle for carriages, with little planting here. The house has a service wing, at its extreme south-east corner. South of the hall is a geometric layout with a central walk from the south side of the house, which widens out at three places before the walk passes through a wooded area, possibly a ‘Wilderness’. The walk ends at the south boundary wall (with no sign of gate on the map). The axis lines up with a window on the south side of the house and is therefore not central to the grass plats. Was this because the canal then existed and prevented a wider plat on the east side? On the southern boundary of the plats, the widening of the path announces the ‘exedra’ or apse in the planting. The nature of the planting is not certain, although the maps show that the gardens behind, i.e. to the south of the exedra, may have been shrubs rather than full trees. On the west side of the plats, behind the outer wall, there is a long walk, with the wall on one side and a line of planting on the other. The planted boundaries may be yew trees. At the south end of the gardens, against the outer wall in the Wilderness area, is shown a long building (also on Armstrong’s map of 1779). The canal occupies a large open rectangle. This may originally have been a clay quarry for the bricks mentioned in the inventory of 1616, but was possibly laid out so as to provide a fishpond for the Hall. To the east of the canal plat lies an area of probable kitchen garden. This also contains a small pond in its south-west corner, possibly a former fishpond? The ‘kitchen garden’ area is divided into three parts each neatly laid out, perhaps including an orchard. There is no clear evidence of any greenhouse, although an open rectangle (unhatched) on the south side of the cross wall boundary could be one (if Maurice had a greenhouse it may have come later). The major element to the east of the hall is divided by three lines of trees, with a garden house at the end of one ‘avenue’, closing the view. Perhaps the elms noted in letters, but not shown on Armstrong’s map of 1779. North of the Hall, between the Hall and Gayton House, is an avenue of trees (replaced in 1959 with the present chestnuts). This shared ‘drive’ may represent an earlier ‘shared’ feature, even perhaps a spur from the river to serve the two late medieval houses here. Roberts argued for short ‘canals’ at right angles to the river in the 13th century (Roberts 1975, 37) and, if so, then the chestnut walk could be such a feature, ‘shared’ between the two great houses. It should be noted that the boundary between Ayscoughfee Hall and the churchyard is a long curving wall, whose line is continued as the building line for the south side of Gayton House. The Triumphal Arch is known from references only.

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In the 1730s or 1740s four lead statues were erected by Johnson. These were removed from Ayscoughfee Hall after the war, having suffered bomb damage. These were discussed by Laurence Weaver in 1916, when he dated these ‘pleasant examples of garden leadwork’ to the 1730s and noted that ‘replicas are to be found in other gardens of the period’ (Country Life 1916). He also noted that Andries de Carpentiere, an assistant to John van Nost, was responsible for other Mars and Minerva figures, with examples at other country houses.

Some time in the 18th century the Ice House was built. Before refrigeration was possible, ice was gathered in the winter from ponds and kept in below-ground buildings called ice houses. Most ice houses were essentially a brick-lined pit with a domed roof. It was usually up to the gardener to make sure the ice house was supplied. From around 1750 it was usual for large country houses to have an ice house. When ice became available from northern Europe and the USA in the late 19th century, ice houses fell out of use. The Ice House was a utilitarian feature, and placed out of sight against the wall, but close to the source of ice, the canal (Fig. 7). Roberts thought that the service wing was removed around 1800 to provide south-facing rooms, looking out into the yew hedge gardens.

Outside the gardens lay The Physic Garden, situated on the south side of Love Lane, opposite the church, ‘The President of the Society Gardens’ on the north side of Church Gate, opposite the church, with an orchard or wooded garden attached. On the other side of the River Welland, on the site of the old priory lay ‘The Bowling Green’.

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1779 Armstrong Armstrong’s map of 1779 is very schematic (Fig. 8), but shows the hall and grounds after Johnson’s death (when Maurice III the Colonel was in residence). This shows: the garden house; the building behind the outer wall in the Wilderness area; and that both ponds existed.

1887, 1903 Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey maps of 1887 and 1903 (Fig. 1) are benchmarks and should be compared with the 1732 map that Grundy produced. It shows that the

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garden remained only in its outlines, the planting being much eroded and the original layout lost. The walk through the plats had been lost, besides the exedra. The building against the boundary wall had been lost, as had the garden building and the three lines of trees, but other small buildings had been put up in the south-east corner of this area, perhaps with gated access to Love Lane. This map shows the ice house, greenhouses and a Wilderness path winding through the trees. In 1848, the ‘Owl Tower’ was built at the south end of the canal. The statues are not clearly shown.

A Summary of the cartographic evidence Date surveyor Map 1732 John Grundy Map of Spalding 1760 anon SGS A1 image 352–3. Like Armstrong 1779, very schematic,

and shows Ayscoughfee hall and its north-east extension, a detached kitchen and a garden house. Gayton House is shown, but the front block only, not the rear complex.

18th c. anon Drains and Tunnels SGS A4. at a small scale, this shows the church and the drains but not anything more.

1779 Armstrong Plan of Spalding c. 1840 anon SGS AG show the detached kitchen and stable block but no

garden house. There is just one line of trees in the long garden. 1844 anon Spalding SGS A57. At a small scale, but shows the stable block. 1887 OS 1903 OS In Ayscoughfee and its History (Spalding Free Press) 1912 OS In Guide Book

6.0 Pictorial Evidence 1743: In the Minute Book, under 26 May 1743, there is a small drawing. This is of the view from west of the river, with the White Horse public house at extreme left and Aycoughfee Hall at right (Fig. 2). On the river are swans, a rowing boat and oared barge, besides three sailing wherries. Gayton House and Ayscoughfee Hall are clearly shown, Ayscoughfee hall with oriel windows, a door to one side, and between the houses, an avenue of small trees. In front of the Hall are imposing pillars, surmounted by ?urns. Of the gardens, little can be seen, except the two ‘plats’ with a row of small trees in front, behind the wall. 1791: Two pencil sketches for Sir Joseph Banks by J.C. Nattes (1765–1822) of the front and rear of the hall. This shows the front oriel and the offset door, with topiary in a ‘palisade’. At the rear, an oriel and offset door, with rear court enclosed behind a simple wooden fence. c.1800: A watercolour by R. Everard of the front of the hall. This shows the ‘Gothick’ changes to the hall, involving the loss of the oriel windows and new central doors. 1808: Drawings by William Brand of the front of the hall, engraved by J. Storer (for the Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet 1807-11). 1818: Pictures by Hilkiah Burgess of the front and rear of the hall. This shows the new extension and no fence at the rear. c.1821: Anonymous picture of the rear view from the north-east.

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No date: Picture by Hilkiah Burgess, of the hall from the south-west. This shows the new bay windows. Postcards and photographs add to the cartographic evidence. County Life photographs taken in 1916 show the grounds and the set of statues put up in the 1740s by Maurice Johnson (but sold at Sothebys after WWII).

7.0 Major events in the history of the Hall A tabular summary of the major events in the history of the hall. 1451 Oaks felled for the roof timbers.

1450–2 House built for the Alwyn family.

1520–56 Unknown occupiers, perhaps the Gayton or Hall families?

1556 Reginald Hall inherits the property.

1602 Thomas Wimberley buys the house from Robert Hall.

1616 Thomas Wimberley dies, leaving the house to Beville Wimberley.

1641 House comes to Beville’s sister Elizabeth Evington and later married Dymoke Walpole.

1658 Dymoke Walpole’s eldest son, Sir John Walpole, sells the house to John Johnson of Pinchbeck for £400.

1685 House comes to Maurice I.

1688 Maurice II born.

c.1720 Yew walks planted (tree-ring dated to this period).

1732 John Grundy produces map of the town.

1747 Maurice I dies.

1755 Maurice II dies.

1794 The yews in front of the house are felled.

1830 Kitchen built in front of north wing (shown in 1818 Hilkiah Burgess painting).

1819 The Chestnut Avenue planted, replaced in 1959.

1845 Front windows replaced, bays added in cross wings, porch and colonnade installed. Turret raised, north service wing added.

1848 The ‘Owl Tower’ built at the end of the lake.

1851 The last of the Johnson family leaves.

1852–96 Hall is rented out.

1898 Gayton House damaged by gas explosion.

1898 Hall sold to Committee of citizens for £2,100. Property bought for town to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

1902 Hall given to the people of Spalding, the SUDC holding in trust.

1908 Bowling Green laid out.

1920 Tennis courts laid out (where aviary now is). A new garden room erected.

1921 Owl Tower demolished to provide room for the War Memorial (temple of Remembrance and Great War Stone). Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

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1922 War memorial by Lutyens, unveiled. Tennis courts laid out. Pond garden in place. Aviary put up.

1925 The present tennis courts laid out. Bowling Green laid out.

1931 New gates erected.

1937 Bandstand erected for the Coronation of George VI, fountain set up in lake.

1939–45 Model allotment created on one of the tennis courts.

1939–45 Bombs drop in the Gardens. Lead statues damaged.

1954 A mid-19th-century fountain moved here from the two centre. This was erected in Hall Place in 1874 as a memorial to Miss Mary Anne Johnson (1794–1878).

1957 Chestnut trees felled and replaced in 1959.

1966 Stable block burnt down.

1974 SHDC replaces SUDC.

Brick café built; bandstand built in ‘exedra’.

1990 Trees planted Cedrus Libani (Cedar of Lebanon) and Araucaria Araucana (Monkey Puzzle Tree).

1994 Two statues sold by Sotheby’s. These were rescued by Mr Lennox, who restored them, and added copy legs and feet (from other statues).

8.0 Conclusions Spalding remains one of the great centres of the English flower industry, and this position can be traced back to the example of Maurice Johnson and his gardens at Ayscoughfee Hall. In the 18th century, social changes with the opening up of society and a certain loss of restrictions, led to a ‘polite society; part of the ‘Enlightenment’. The idea of change and progress through enquiry was accompanied by the formation of societies such as the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, where common interests bound people together. It was common for interested persons to visit great houses, sometimes without invitation, and ask to see around the house and gardens. Such occasions were well known and this was the background to many of Jane Austen’s novels: the intermixing of persons, not always of equal status, in a ‘polite society’. Owners might welcome this attention, it being a chance to show off their houses their gardens and their good taste to other educated persons. Spalding was a centre of learning, although the minutes betray a certain fresh naivety in the approach to the new and foreign. One may give examples from the Minutes, where freaks of nature (Latin: lusus) were shown, often common objects. Thus ‘walnuts conjoined’ or ‘carrot with six roots like fingers’, or the ‘monstrous eel’ that was said to ‘eat sweet and firm’ might be recorded. The Physic Garden Garden history may be said to have had a new start in the later 1600s with the discovery of new plants and a new way of setting out gardens. To some extent, it was a new class of landowners, often in smaller houses and ground that led the change, and a new audience for these gardens. There was also a new awareness in northern Europe of the value of plants in medicine, although herbal remedies were well-known in the medieval period. With the advance of Science, coming first from the Mediterranean countries, gardens

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with plants ordered to provide knowledge and information about plants for medicine were established first at Pisa, Padua, Bologna and Florence in the 1540s, at Leipzig, Leiden and Montpellier by 1600, and in Britain, first Oxford with its Botanic Garden 1621, Edinburgh 1670 and then Chelsea in 1673. Spalding followed in around 1730. These were all set up to provide education and this was true of the Spalding Physic Garden too. The Chelsea Physic Garden was established by the Society of Apothecaries, and it was this Society that organised expeditions to collect plants. Its influence was great, and Maurice Johnson was familiar with the gardens and its staff. In the time of Philip Miller (1722–70), gardener to the Society of Apothecaries, the Chelsea Physic Garden grew to wide fame, especially for its North American plants. His Dictionary was an enormously popular work. The Chelsea Physic Garden also instituted a system of exchange, so that its work and own collections could be expanded across Europe. Until the 19th century, most drugs came from herbs, plants and vegetables. It was intended that the Physic Garden was a place of education, besides providing herbs to the Society of Apothecaries. In Spalding, the SGS set up its own Physic Garden, first on the east side of Love Lane (shown on Grundy’s map of 1732), and then at Gayton House, when that came to Maurice Johnson in 1743. The arrangement of the plants in physic gardens was not haphazard or aesthetic, but followed scientific principles, although these varied according to the prevailing dogma at each garden. Under Philip Miller (after 1722) the beds at Chelsea were changed so as to reflect the system of Tournefort and this arranged beds firstly by Trees and shrubs, Perennials, Annuals and biennials. After this, the beds were arranged by whether they had petals, and then by number of petals. Medicinal plants were arranged by their properties and medical use. This system lasted at Chelsea until 1773 and was probably the system used by the Society. At the front of Gayton House, the Society established its own Physic Garden in 1743 (the earlier garden was in Love Lane), in imitation of the famous example at Chelsea. The connection with Chelsea was strong, with Maurice Johnson familiar with the great gardeners of the day, with Stephen Switzer, with Philip Miller, and with a library at Spalding that contained all the books that came on to the market in an age when around Europe’s crowned heads sought out the new plants from around the globe. Amongst the members of the Society was Joseph Banks, whose expeditions brought back to these shoes many new plants.

Acknowledgements NAU Archaeology is grateful to SHDC for commissioning this work. At Ayscoughfee Hall, Richard Davies has been helpful. At the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, we have been helped by the President John Cleary and by Michael and Diana Honeybone, whose researches have been very useful to the writer. We are grateful to staff at The British Library, London, and The Bodleian Library, Oxford, for access to documents. This report was produced by David Dobson and Michael Feather, and edited by Richard Hoggett.

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Bibliography Anon. 1903 Ayscoughfee and Its History (Spalding Free Press)

Avery Tipping, H. 1925 English Gardens (London)

Bryant, C.B., (ed.) 1954 The Torrington Diaries: A Selection of the Tours of the Hon. John Byng (Later Fifth Viscount Torrington) between the years 1781 and 1794 (London)

Byng, J. 1935 The Torrington Diaries (ed. C. Bruyn Andrews, London)

Department of the Environment

1975 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, District of South Holland, Linconshire (Spalding Area)

Dwight, N.R. n.d. John Grundy of Spalding Engineer 1719–1783

FAS 2005 Historic Buildings Assessment: Ayscoughfee Hall, Spalding, (Field Archaeology Specialists Ltd)

Glenn, C. and Taylor, G.

1999 Building Recording and Historical Research at Ayscoughfee Hall, Spalding, Lincolnshire (SAH99) (Archaeological Project Services Report 62.99)

Gooch, E.H. 1940 A History of Spalding (Spalding Free Press)

Lukis, W. (ed.) 1882 The family memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley M.D., and the antiquarian and other correspondence of William Stukeley, Roger and Samuel Gale (Surtee’s Society 73)

Lukis, W. (ed.) 1885 Stukeley’s Diaries and Letters Vol. III (Surtee’s Society 80)

Nichols, J. 1781 Biblioth. Topog. Britannica

Nichols, J. Reliquae Galeanea no. ii, pt. ii (for SGS Minutes)

Owen, D. 1981 The Minute Books of The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society 1712–1755 (Lincoln Record Society 73)

Pursglove, R. 1994 The History of Ayscoughfee Hall (South Holland DC)

Roberts, D.L. 1975 ‘Ayscoughfee Hall: The Building of a Great Merchant’s House’, Lincolnshire History and Archaeology 10.

South Holland DC 1986 The Owners of Ayscoughfee Hall (information sheet No 4)

South Holland DC n.d. Ayscoughfee Hall and Gardens (information sheet No 5)

Snowdon, N. 2007 Ayscoughfee: A Great Place in Spalding (privately published)

VCH 1906 Victoria History of the County of Lincoln (ed. W. Page)

Williamson, T. 1995 Polite landscapes: Gardens and Society in Eighteenth-century England (Stroud)

Wright, N.R. n.d. John Grundy of Spalding Engineer 1719–1783

Appendix 1: Extracts from the Minute Books of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society

[..] uncertain text Volume I Left margin Right margin (p. 85 1725)

The Secretary brought a fair Double Red and White Anemone

(p.113 1727) The Sec… a Peep of an Auricula Ursi (Grand Paisant) of a deep crimson and like velvet with a yellow eye.

(p.119 12 October 1727 The Secr. Brought and showed the Soc. 2 fine flowers of the Amaranthus Coccineij and a leaf of the Cyclamen very large and beautifull.

Botany Amaranthus Coccineij Cyclamen

(p.119 19 October 1727) The Secr. Showed the Soc. an Auricula Ursi with branches coming from the stalk like. The Hyacinthus Bosroides. Also a burr or mop grow around the stalk of an Eglantine Rose. Also 2 Wood Nutts growing conjoined as in one. The fruit like a nutmeg.

Botany

Botany (p.119 2 November 1727) The Sec. Showed the Soc….peach. twisted very rough..

(p.120 14 December 1727) The Sec. showed the Soc. Dr Douglas Treatise entitled Lilium Garniense… With a botanical depiction of … Coffee Berry with copper prints int….

[Guernsey Lily]

(p.1331728) showed the Soc. Seeds of Capsicum Indiacum or West Indian Pepper grew in Pod.

(p.134 16 May 1728) The President brought to the Soc. A Double purple Anemone, from the tuft in the midst of the Stalk (which tuft is composed of many [..] as well as green jagged […] arose 3 several smaller stalks and an anemone on each of them.

Vegetable Anenome

Vegetables (p.135 20 June 1728) The Secr. Showed the Soc. The budd of the fruit bearing pomegranate, which being broke open showed the scarlett leaves and innumerable seeds.

(p.136 1728) The President showed.. great variety of Flowers of Seedling Pink raised by Mr Rowland. The sec. showed a Stalk of the Strawberry Spinage.

Vegetables Trachelium Americanum

(p.137 1 August 1728) The Secr. Showed the Soc. The Flower and Leaf of the Trachelium Americanum flore ruberimo Raij, the Cardinals Flower, now in full blow in his father’s garden and about 4 feet high.

Defer: Tesa (p.138 22 August 1728) Mr John Johnson showed the Soc. The leaves of the Cork Tree and green ginger and the flower of the Geranium Africanum […] Flore Ruberimo gathered by him in Chelsea Physic Garden.

Parts of Exotic Vegetables from Chelsea Garden

SGS Minutes II (p.1 9 January 1729)

The Secr….also showed the Society the manner of the Butcher Brome, Knee holm, Bruseus bearing the flowers Each through the middle of a leaf, on which when the flower is open and lyes flat, this produces a large round deep crimson bery. This plant is called [greek] prickly myrtle or [greek] wild myrtle. The flower is composed of six small whitish green leaves whereof 3 are larger than the other and are round at the ends the other 3 are sharp pointed and intermediate from the centre rises a purple Pistillum tipped with whitish green. I have been the more particular because Parkinson’s description is different C. A5.253 though he gives a drawing of the flower lying of the leaf which in a curiosity of production as also that a flower of the Season. V: Knowles’ just description of it in his Materia Medica Botanica V 7144. fo.249. This introduced a discussion by the VP and other members about evergreens which the gardiners according to Chambers reduce to 12 Several more may be may be esteemed and are all taken into gardens for growing Espaliers; Standards, or low hedges and will bear the climate.

1 Alaternus 2 Arbutus 3 Bay 4 Box 5 Holly 6 Juniper 7 Laurustinus 8 Phillarea 9 Pyracantha 10 Privet the Italian Ligusthorn 11 Yew 12 Lawrell Rosemary and the Strechas Acrotanum and Lavender

Cedar Ilex Pine Firr Cypress Mas and Jasmin Lignum Vitae or Thuya Ork Tree Savine Tamarisk Lentisk Pinaster Pitch Tree Paliuris Celastrus

Dwarf Laurel or Thymelia Gorse or Furze Whynn Broom Ruseus Vermicularis frutex major SedumArborensum Caprifolium Ivy M aracockija Virginia Creeper Pervinca And all the family of […] chimera their leaves Perichmenum Rue Sage and the Sage Tree phonini

To these we may add The Larch Tree, Larix almost evergreen. The learned Ray in his Pomona Lm.fo.236 places the Larix last of all the flower bearing trees which falle their leaves because nearest in Nature to them, beauty full at bearing a fine crimson coloured flower succeeded by a cone like Cypress nuts whence the plants are raised, and Evelyn in his Sylva Cap. XXIII fo.113 says it is of the Coniferous family but separates it from the rest because the loss of leaf. He there speaks much […] and gives reasons for cultivating and producing of Agaricum or Venice Turpentine.

Vegetable Calibas of Minorca

(p.10 17 July 1729) Mr Johnson Secr. Showed the Soc. A beautifull fruit of the Mince Pye = Calibar of Minorca, made flat a Topp with 10 protuberances dividing pentagonally each angle having 2 of ?? knobs or protuberances and so resembling the pye from its crimped corners The English gave this odd fruit that name, the ground colour of the fruit is creame colour pitted by shades of Sapp Green and pale green sending from the stalk which is of a very dark green. T ?? each of these knobs or protuberances and are marking the plain interstices or subdivisions equally so going all on the flowers places and centring […] the seeds of this elegant plant […] Ld Carpenter General in Chief and Governor of the Island of Minorca

Vegetation Pomegranate Mock Orange

(p.1131 July 1729) M Johnson Secr. Showed the Soc. The pod of a Pomegranate Apple newly fallen which was dissected and the Balaustum or double Blossom also. And a Mock Orange or Gourd in that forme.

(p.17 23 October 1729) The Revd the President The President showed the Soc. A white grape, ripe and the seed growing out of the skin, also the kernell of a Walnutt in the shape of a bird ready to be hatched, he had after which another in like manner and MJJ On: large: single: grape at the Extremity of a tendril. Mr Secr. Johnson showed the Soc. 2 kernels of Apricot braking the stone, in shoot germinating which lay on the ground fallen off by a blast of lightning also a very fine Horse chestnut which grew in Clifton Park Nottingham

Vegetables

(p.20 30 October 1729) And a drawing from Mr Michael Dahls Sketch of a damask Rose which grew in Col. Johnson’s garden at Blackwalk. The Aloe a variety of Sedum The Sec. Said he had lost 2 Imps or Offsets by Planting them in pots too full of the County rich black mould, …

Water Melon

(p.33 13 August 1730) Mr Johnson Secr. Showed the Soc… Also produced a Water Melon raised by him this year but small, by reason that the vine dyed before it ripened, but it had the right taste.- Dr Green Secr. Produced a flower of the White Female Balsom consisting of eight leaves, each leaf having an heel or spur, whereas the flowers of the Female Balsom (as by Comparison appeared) consist of but 3 leaves and have but one heel or spurr, the upper flower of this stalk was very double and like a Larkheel.

Scarab. Ag Globe Ameranth.

(p.33 20 August 1730) Mr Johnson Secr…. Also showed the Soc. A large Scarabeus Aquaticus – and the flower of the Globe Amaranthus striped with white.

Vegetables arum

(p.34 17 September 1730) The Secr. Mr Johnson showed the Soc. an Arum in seed, which he transplanted into a garden out of the fields some yeares since 13 inches high, the berrys very large, […} Also the whole plant of Horminum Agreste […] which grows spontaneous in the Grass […] of his Father’s garden in plenty. Also an extraordinary large bery of […] Solanum Lethale.

Trachelium Vegetable

(p.34 30 October 1730) Mr Johnson Secr. Presented the Soc. Garden with a plant of the Trachelium Americanum flore galeato ruberrimo. The Cardinals Flowers therefore called Hays Flora cap 39 folio 148 and with several stones and seashells…

(p.36 8 October ) The Sec. Mr Johnson brought a walnut Shell dividing into 3 not 2…

(p.44 4 March 1731) Mr Operator Cox communicated a letter from Mr Johnson at London in which is the following account and drawing by Mr Bogdani member this Society [VRS and LondS]. A hyacinth, which blew by being placed in the mouth of a bottle filled with water. The experiment was by Mr Phil. Miller of Chelsea Physic garden. FRS. His observations that an bulbous root flower will […] This way by placing the root on the mouth of a bottle filled with water but so that the water doth not touch the root, and it will attract moisture, sufficient to cause it to its fibrous roots, when the bottle is almost full of it, it will sprout forth its leaves and stem. It will be proper to say these roots on the bottle about two months before you expect the flowers and the early flowers succeed the best. If Tulips they are to be placed about a month before other earlier roots in order to have them blow at the same time, these being thus kept in a moderate to warm room with some airy soil blow in any time. These roots will blow thus but once in Perfection, and they have been tried the 2nd year, but they fall short of their beauty.

(p.46 May 1732) Also weighed a red and white and Green Double Tulip from MJ garden 5oz

(p.47 15 April 1731) Also a truss of West Indian Wheat, like what is called pearl barley which he presented to the Museum.

Vegetable

(p.47 22 April 1731) The other letter from the Revd Mr Elisha Smith rector of Tydd St Giles and lecturer of Wisbech which came with 2 straw berry plants and contains this account of them. The greatest curiosity is the Strawberry kind lately arrived from Chili. I am assured from those who have seen the produces, that some of the fruit are as bigg as Golden Pippins – this letter is dated from Tydd St Giles 16th April 1731. This Same gent. Last yeare was so obliging to present of said Secr. With some plant of the Muscovite Strawberry, of the white wood kind, bearing 2 crops in a year.

(p.64 20 April 1732) The Secr. Brought the cone of a Firr Tree planted about 50 yeares, this being the first of its bearing, and it produced several of them neare the apex or summit of the tree. Deposited as a specimen.

Cone of a Firre Tree

(p.66 25 May 1732) The Secr. showed the Soc. a bulbous root of a tulip pretty large produced just above the soil, of a beautiful Crimson colour, small ones so produced are as the gardiners say not uncommon, this seems capable of producing a flower, for which purpose he will carefully plant it.

Vegetable

(p.66 1 June 1732) The Secr. Showed the Society … also a double lemon coloured Raninculus with a smaller one all green like the ???? leaves of that plant but in shape like the flower. Mr Everard a Member sent to be showed the Soc. Catalogus plantarum tum Exoticarum tum Domesticarum qua in hortis hand procul a Londina Sitis in Venditionem Propagantum, by a Society of Gardiners. Part 4 of the Forest Trees, Evergreens and Wilderness Shrubs. All such as have not been well described done here in fine Coloured plates with the print of the leaves and flowers of the Tulip Tree full size. It was observed we had as this Soc. begun to Catalogue the Evergreen for Wilderness Work and Gardens 9 January 1728/9 from Evelyn, Kay, Miller etc before this book was published in 1730. But it is a farther […] that the Ruscus or Butchers Broom be there omitted, of which we had taken more particular notice, as a very curious, useful, humble evergreen.

Lusus in a Ranuncul. Vegetables for our Climate by the London Soc. Of Gardiners Prints

Vegetables Poppys Lusus of different carnations on the same root Mr Millers Scheme for Chelsea Physic Garden

(p.67 20 July 1732) The Secr. Showed the Soc. A specimen of a green leaf and of the flower leaf of a bright crimson poppy more woody hard than the Common Field poppy more scarlet and different in shape. It grows plenty fully in Hartford and Cambridgeshire. So dos a lemon yellow poppy in Wales. Mr Stagg Coadjutor and gardiner to the Soc. Produced to them a plant of a carnation in a pot which he called Scarlett and Black, wherein from the same root were two fair flowers now in blow one of them a deep crimson coloured picked flower on a greenish white ground. The other a light scarlet colour inclining to salmon with some few picks of the deep crimson but on a clear white ground which in the coloured flower the root commonly produceth. The Secr. Gave the Soc. An account from Mr Philip Miller FRS and Gardiner to the Comp of Apothecarys at Chelsea Physic Garden of his scheme and design for building a Grand Greenhouse and Botanical Library there and planting all the trees Shrubbs and Herbs so as the taller should appeare in gradation above those which do not naturally grow so high on each side a broad walk to be left closer to the Cedar of Lebanons which but lately came to the perfection as to beare Cones.

(p. 87 17 May 1733) [discussions of Rhubarb in Leiden, not long since grown in Europe]

(p.97 4 October 1733) The said Secr. brought a large root supposed to be Urtica Urentis, Ligneous, and curiously fibred. Saml Sharpe a Gardiner, brought 4 apples of equal size growing in form of a calthrop, 3 will be the base, and one at Topp, turn em as you will, and appear as in the margin [in margin]. Mr Stagg the Society gardiner showed them many beautiful Auriculas now in blow in pots.

Vegetables

(p.99 November 1733) Mr Johnson Secr. Showed the Soc. A perfect plant root leaves stalk and seed vessel composed of 3 thick 3angular […] with round seed of the colour of Minium ground of the Iris which root he presented with some of the seed to the Soc. And they were planted down in the Soc. Garden

Iris seed Vessil

(p. 100 22 November 1733) The pres. Showed the Soc. The root of a Red Beet which was raised from Seed in Mays ground by him being of the deepest Crimson Colour, above 2 feet in length and full 16 incches in circumference near the Topp.

(p. 108 25 April 1734) Dr Green a sec. of the Soc. Presented a MS entitled Plantae officinales…

(p. 118 10 October 1734) The President brought a gourd in Shape of a Pear being of a pale green colour… in length 2 foot and 1 foot and a ½ in circumference in the […] Also a root of fennel more than Three feet long..

(p.131 1 April 1735) The VP brought the upper part of the Single Rocket plant five inches broad being flat and turning round.

Lusus in an Eruca

(p.179 21 April 1736) M Johnson and a member brought into the Museum a Willow Rose dryd and of a brown colour but perfect, this when fresh on the tree grows on the extremities of the Twigs and is a tuft of small greenish white leaves resembling a flower the tree therefore which produces it is by Parkinson in his herbal Trib.16. Cap 29. fo. 1430 1431 called Salix Rose

Willow Rose Salix Rose

Large Chili Strawberry Its fruit and Culture

(p. 183 7 July 1737) The Secr. Brought a chilli Strawberry large and ripe from the same root whose A Chili Strawberry four inches in circumference. Two in length and weighed half an ounce was gathered on Monday Last full ripe in Mr Johnson’s garden This Mr Miller in his Dictionary Fragaria Chiliensis fructu maxima folys cannotis Hirsutis, vulgo frutilla. Freziers. Voy. who brought it into Europe and gave it to Mons. de Lessieu Professor of Botany at Paris; it is when ripe of a whitish Red colour, the stalks leaves and flowers which are of a vast size, so are the Runners, it thrives best in an Eastern aspect, frequently to be watered.

(p.187 4 August 1737) The Revd the President in the Chair The Secr…. He also brought a specimen of the flower full blown and leaf of Campanula persiex folia carulco flore ptero. Tournf. The double peachleaved Bell flower Miller sub Campanula (4). blowing in M Johnsons Garden very full and deep colour. M Johnson and his Son brought a Province Rose Bud having five uniform pennate leaves each 2 inches long proceeding from the stalk at equal distances at the bottom of the flower cup, all so much alike as to differ much from the common form of such leaves on Rose Buds which commonly answer the riddle Five brethren joined in one Two have beards and two have none And the fifth has but half a one The rose bud was gathered in the Bowling Green Garden, just opening of a beautiful colour, pretty deep crimson, and very odorous scent and the leaves aforementioned very broad and verdant.

Botany Double Blew Steeple Bell Lusus in a Rose

Lusus in a Pear In walnuts Medlars

(p.169 30 September 1737) By the Revd the President a lusus of a small pear ?? in an oval forme The Secr presented two walnuts growing conjoined in like manner Also two medlars grown woody on the trees.

SGS Minutes III (p.7 4 May 1738)

Dr Green Secr showed…, and a striped large sharp leaved Tulip, of two reds and a pale yellow, having eight leaves 4 within and 4 without, the Secr. brought another of like colours but round leaves, the same number and a lusus [freak] of a leaf from the stalk as large as any of the rest, but stripes of green as part taking of the stame or stalk; these roots blew both in like manner the last yeare. For Experiment Mr Stagg now transplanted in blew into pots, several of the finest feather, and Agate Tulips; to try what effect it would have on the next yeare.

(p.8 1 June 1738) Mr Stagg Coadjutor and Gardiner to the Soc. Brought in out of their garden Two Iris Flower de Lusus, each with 4 falling leaves purple Velvett, and yellow and stripe down the middle, one of the leaves striped and white, the 4 upper leaves pale ash colour. NB the Iris commonly cenniss but after 6 leaves 3 upper and 3 lower en falling. Rays Flora Cap XVIII. 109

(p.10 22 June 1738) Mr Johnson brought in a root like a radish from Norway

(p.31 5 April 1739) Dr Green a Secr. Of this Soc showed the Society a light purple velvet Coloured Auricula Ursi, of his own raising from seed, having a very large white eye; one peep of three – which were on the same stalk, was of the Circumference hereunder drawn round- the extremities of the same as lay’d down flat upon this paper, 2 inches diameter of the flower the learned Mr John Rea in his Flora says Auricula Ursi, Beares Eares are nobler kinds of cowslips, bearing several flowers like them in forme on the Summitt of their stalk in what wee commonly call a truss. Rapis have overlooked this beautiful flower, but our Cowley has done it injustice in his 3rd book of plants, thus translated by N Tate Pt Laureat.72 Impudent fool! That first stil’d beauteous flower By a detested name, the ears of Bears; Worthy himself of Asses Ears, a pair Fairer than Midas once was said to wear.

(p.49 27 December 1739) Hot Beds Professor Triewalds New Method Sometime ago Mr Professor Triewald communicated to the Royal Society a method he has invented for making Hot Beds, or Houses; it consists of a large boiler set over a furnace in what he calls a Tower, from whence the Hot Air or vapour is conveyed in declining pipes laid under the Hot beds made of Tanners Ooze and having a waste valve loaded, to prevent the bursting of the Engine, by these means he imagines to supply the Plants not only with Heat but Moisture, so that the Glasses may be kept always Close, having no occasion to open them frequently to water them. But I fear he will find that heat and moisture without a supply of fresh air will rather mould and corrupt the tender filaments of the plants and so destroy them, he yet gives no Account of the success attended it. Mr Millers method of Ripening grapes Mr Miller’s method of ripening grapes is I think the best easiest and cheapest I know. It is this, when the grapes are full grown, he lays a good thick bed of strong Hot Litter at a moderate distance from the stem of the vine, on this bed he lays a thin covering of slit deals then unnailing the vines, lays them carefully down upon these deals, where being thus exposed to the sun, the heat of which being strongly reflected from the wall against which they grew, to all which add the heat they receive through the thin boards from the litter, they are thus ripened far better than by any other although more expensive method.

Hot Beds Professor Triewalds New Method

Flowers blown in Water Glasses Hyacinth Persian iris Crocus

(p.16 25 February 1741) Dr Green Secr. Showed the Society a large single white Hyacinth, of that sort called Gyant, with 12 flowers blown, and an offset to this same root blowing […] a water glass, earlier and stronger in leaves stalks and flower than any in the ground in his garden by much, after Mr Curteis’s methods. And in another glass is a Persian Iris, rather going off and Golden Crocus: as wee have Bays History of Plants and some other of his works, he proposed the best should be purchased

(p.81 11 June 1741) The Soc. Secr. Showed… He also showed the Soc. Several specimens of very double Persian Ranunculus raised from seed by Dr Coleby of Stamford, whereof the Dr was so obliging to give him some roots, these flowers were large, of various colours and some of them striped, others pecked, all extremely beautiful.

Sunflower Calth Americana Poppy Larkheels

(p.122 12 August 1742) From the garden of Mr Everard a member Mr Butter brought the flower ?? very large and consisting of small French Yellow or pale Gold Colour Leaves very thick set and double thoughout. Also of a round-leaved small double white poppy edged with carmine Colours, Several very double flower of Larkheels of variety of Colours, these flowers called also Larkspurs, Consolida, [greek], very curious

(p.124 26 August 1742) Mr Johnson showed the Soc. The Deep Crimson fruit of the Opuntia or Indian Figg which blew last year in his ?? Garden bearing a large lemon coloured flower in forme like a Single Anenome, and ripened this month v: Parkinson’s Herbal Ch XVI. Cap 70. Miller’s Dict. It is in shape like a fig, in taste very sweet and agreeable, but flattish as fig and of that sort of substance and firmer.

Opuntia Indian Figg fruit

Lusus in Peach Fruits of double bloom peach And Azarrla or Neapolitan Medlar Azarolus

(p.129 2 October 1742) He also brought two fair and ripe green coloured peeches growing together towards the stalks, though on 2 distinct foot stalks by collision; and presented the company with several other of the same peeches which grew on Standard Trees, bearing for the most part and in vast plenty double blossoms: the Persica, vulgaris floreplens, of Tournefort 64 Miller in Dict. Persica. Catalog. Plantar.: Hortul Lond. Folio 54.55a And with some of the fruit of the Mespilus Apij Folio Laciniato. C.B.p..459 Mespilus Aroma Sive Neapolitana. Park Theatr. 1423. TB.Vol. 1. P1 67 Cas.Alp Millers Dict. Mespilus and Catal. Ph Herts. Lond: folio 48. No 5 Which ripened this year in great plenty in the Packin gardens.

M Johnson Secr.

(p.144 5 May 1743) He [Maurice Johnson] also showed the Company the flowers of an Auricula growing on several stalks from the main or Bough hyacinths […] Old Giant Buff a brown velvet flower edged and striped with lemon fine Dye and double, this plant generally produces […] flowers after this manner, called now the good lad: and a great favourite with him having had it many years.

Auricula

(p.148 21 July 1743) By a letter dated 16th Inst. this Society received thanks of the Royal Society for observations communicated to the learned soc. by you on November came a plant of Sedum Majus vulgari Similis of Morrisons Historia Plantarum Diction: No 10 in full blow 18 inches high having 12 […]cracked […] towards the Topps the flowers green and with the rest of the plant with a B Coloured tinge towards all of extreme parts of its very thick leaves, which are sharp pointed, as those of the Aloe, which this plant resembles […] Brought growing in a small pot and shown by Mr Johnson Secr.

(p.150 4 August 1743) The Secr. And Mr Bransby a Member showed the Society a ripe fruit of the Ananas, or Pine Apple, very fragrant and of a bright gold Colour raised in the Gardens of Richard Thompson Esq of Elshet near Barton in this County the height […] the Topp 6 ½ inches the Topp 5 inches the Circumference 14 inches the weight 2lbs 2 ½ ozs and sent a present to him and by him given to the Revd the President his Father in Law

Ananas or Pine Apple

(p.155 6 October 1743) Mr John Johnson jnr brought a large branch with the Crimson flowers of a Persicaria orientalis flore ruberrimo. Indiane Arsmart with Crimson coloured flowers.

(p.184 27 September 1744) The S of Soc. MJ showed the Company which he gathered in Dr Walkers greenhouse a Coffee Bery the pulp on the outside of a dark mahogany colour – also a leaf of the Husa or Banain, Banana plant so famous for fodder in all the East and west: and gave them an Account as at last Soc by the Dr of many curious Exoticks there

(p.185 11 October 1744) The said Secr. Showed the company a drawing by him made and coloured of the Aromaticus Flore Siliastro, hitherto not sufficiently described. It flowers freely every third year but for once opening at 5 in the evening, and closing at 8 in the morning, so if cut when blowing and put in water or held in the hand, or layd on a table, when closed soon decays and turns to a watery substance and rots. The stalk a deep green triangular and set with prickles. The budd large the leaves orange coloured in forme like the Sunflower. In the middle sized cups in one petal but as it were nivecked and divided in segments, this a paler green without and white within, from the centre thereof it puts forth on long stalks many lemon coloured seed vessels, covered thick with a farina and appearing feathery. It is carryd up all over the back of the greenhouse belonging to the Revd Dr Rd Walker VM of Trinity College Cambridge where it blews freely and scents the whole, any One flower will scent a large room as with spicey perfume. This drawing is in proportion of but half its real size. It […] in bark. Miller in his Dict. Under No 11, cereus, calls it Scandeus (but without Support it can’t climb) minor, polygonus, articulatum. Par. Bat. And […] the lesser creeping jointed Torch Thistle, with many angles, but his description there following is very short and imperfect, wherefore I thought this fine flower worthy a more full and exact description. It bears the fruits freely, and is propagated by cuttings. He also brought in and left for the use of the members a catalogue of garden Seed, Flower Roots fruit and Forest Trees, Evergreens Flowering Shrubs Greenhouse and Hothouse Plants sold by Mr Jno Harrison Gardeners Seedsman Jesus College Lane Cambridge who has an excellent stock part of the Late Lord Petre’s plants, was recommended to that place by Mr Miller, is expert and judicious in every branch of gardening, and has the ear of many, especially Mrs and Dr Walker’s garden, green house and hot house, stored with all sorts of curious, rare and elegant vegetables in the more thriving condition from which experience and character he hath employed Mr Harrison and recommended him for their custom to the members of this Society in anything they may want could come by water to Wisbech and thence hither.

SGS Minutes IV (p.24 14 November 1745)

Mr Johnson brought a curious seed vessel of a vegetable like what they call the Snail, or Medica Cochleata. It seems very different from any of the 4 described by Mr Phillip Miller in his dict. the head being squamous as of the Cardinal wrapped round with a wiry substance.

Vallantinus

(p.69 Summer 1746) Johnson secr. Showed them the flower and leaf of Lavatera Africana flore pulccherrimo Boerh. Index horti Leyd. No 3 Mr Miller an Excellent botanist Gardener of the Physic Gardens Chelsea FRS in his Gardeners Dictionary, says it takes its name of the physitian Septicus Lavaterus, the frd of Mons. Tournefoot, upon whose account he so entitled it. Martin thought it to be the Trimestrei Clusij: but then it ought rather to be referred to the Genus of Alcea. The leaf, flower, stile and cup of the flower have the appearance of a mallow when the florists have given it the appellation of African Mallow. The Stile becomes a fruit which is armed in front with an hollow shield; The seeds which are shaped like a kidney, growing to the inner part. They are very ornamental plants in a fine garden as Mr Miller says when placed amongst other annuals either in pots, or borders: Their flowers are very like those of the Mallow, but are larger and of a more beauty full Colour.

(p.74 Summer 1746) Said Secr. Showed the Company a beautiful thriving plant of an Iceplant Ficoides Africana, folio plantaginis undulato nuicis argentei ad sperosa. Tourn. African Ficoides or Fig-Marygold, with a waved plantain leafe. With silver drops like frozen water or Ice commonly called from their tincture the Diamond Ficoides. No 39 in Millers Garden Dictionary where he speaks of it as not being a plant of much beauty, it grows very regular in a pot, and lies flat dividing itself equally in four large branches, this in full flower, plentifully blown, the which great leaves have all a […..] around the edges, the buds of the flowers as they blow are cap’d with a leaf of the brightest and deepest carmine colour, the flowers when expanded are an inch thick in Diameter, and the purest […], consisting of many small leaves sharp pointed with a faint […] halves of the flowers before they blow twist round at the extreme point in manner […] of the Convolvulus like a skrew. The stalks are very thick in proportion to the plant, and each of the 4 main stalks so dividing about 10 inches in length.

Diamond Ficoides or Ice-Plant an African Figg Marygold

(p.81 20 November 1746) The said Secr. Brought in the Head of an Ananas of the sort called by Mr Miller the Queen Pine, Dr Green observed the Lower Leaves to be the smaller, ?? in the Artichoke. Dr Green specimens of the Brassica Fimbriata C.B. rubra, Miller q. Boor Cole, very deep red and deeply laminated. It is the Scandinavian kele or cabbage. Very Hardy.

Pine Apple Ananas Boor Cole

(p.98 9 April 1747) The Secretary brought the boughs of an Elme, the thickest but 4 inches and ½ in circumference, which had been, by naturally entwining with each other three times enarched and grown together within the length of a foot or a little more.

(p.114 30 July 1747) The sd Sec MJ showed the Company a spike of the deep Crimson Flower of the Rhus Virginianum or sumack tree, of use in dying, as the branches are in America (where these trees grow in plenty) for Tanning, Leather.

SGS Minutes V Purple ThornApple

(p.20 21 July 1748) The President brought a flower of the common Stramonium fructu Spinosa, rotundo, flore albo simplia, T.118. and also Stramonium, fructu Spinosa oblongo, caules et flore violaea Majus purpureum Path Par. M H 3. 607a

(p.26 20 October 1748) The President… He showed the company a small double orange coloured flower of Hieracium kind called Auricula Muris. Mouse Eare.

Pilosella flower

(p.58 2 June 1750) The President brought a branch of Variegated Holly Green, Red, and White distinct in the Bark as also a piece of artificial Stone.

Variegated Holly

(p.70 6 December 1750) Mr Operator Cox brought from Mr Pink a member four fine specimen of the following. 1st The Jesuits Bark; arbor febrifuga Peruviana, China Chirce, and Quinquina and Gannanaparide Dicta R.H. an holquahult gen gen arbor Chilli Hern.? 2nd Storax calamita Renna, Styrax offic. Arbor gen IB.folio Mali litorei C.B. 3rd A large Pod of the Tamarind; Tamarind offic. Siliqua Arabica C.B. Inlay sive Tamarindis. Pif. 4th Lacca in ramalis, Shck Pac; a resinous Substance from, Jujuba Indica C.B. Malus moluccensis horribil Spinosa, Ber Indica fructu jujubino. I.B. Malus indica Lusitanus, Ber and Bor Acosta Park. Pesiu Toddali H.M. This is used in making sealing wax to render it brittle and give it an agreeable scent.

1 Cortex Peruv Specimens of Druggs From Mr Pink 2 Storax 3 Tamarind 4 Lacca

(p.114 22 February 1753) The President showed the Company a Carott with 6 roots growing in a line like Fingers.

Carott with 6 roots

Appendix 2: Extracts from various letters and other material Wrapper for garden seeds, addressed to John Johnson, with instructions for growing onions and peppers, from Captn Moleworth: N.B. When the Spaniards have a mind their onions should be very large, they stubb them up carefully (not draw ‘em) so as not to break the least fibre, & transplant them about eight or ten Inches asunder, and two inches & a half deep in the ground – if the weather be dry, they must be duly water’d as Lettice etc are when transplanted. The Piementones must be rais’d in a hot bed, & transplanted when about 3 or 4 Inches Above ground About a foot asunder, the fruits when green make an […] pickle, when ripe they are red, & may be gather’d to lay by & dry; and are very good to put […] any Seasone’d Meats where pepper may be used. Letter from Maurice Johnson’s son Maurice in London about melon seeds and fruit-tree cuttings he is sending to Spalding: London 24 March 1740 I am favoured with yours of the last of February, which I should have answered before, but had nothing worth sending you. I have now got a very curious parcell of melon Seeds which my friend Mr Fairchild has procured for me, by his being acquainted with his Majesties chief Gardiner at Richmond Mr Thos Greening, to whom they were sent to be raised, you may reckon them without scruple the most curious sorts in England, and perhaps in Europe, for they were collected and brought into this kingdom by his Majesties Command and expence, and designed entirely for the Royal Family’s Use, (Fairchild happened to be there when the parcells came in to Mr Greening’s, and took of all the sorts and made the catalogue from that which was sent with the seeds. There are some others that were also sent to him of which there was no names, but thinking they might be curious has sent me some of them likewise. He has sent me some cuttings of pears and plumbs (which I desired) and of pears, the Chermonteel is the best, and plumbs very good and early the pears, all but the Bury, last all Winter and Spring. I sent the Catalogue with the Cuttings and Seeds yesterday by the Peterbro Carrier and hope you will se them grafted as soon as may be for it is full late. Yr Obed. Son M Johnson Letter from Maurice Johnson junior to his father: 30 April 1746 … The Season of the Spring being now gotten so very high and the Summer advancing will be no small advantage, as I imagine to our gardens or to the plantations, where I think of spending a few hours Cum quatuor Voluminitus, non ita pridem, a Te Memoratis [as with the fourth volume of minutes, not so long ago, as you remember]. Of what advantage your late Alteration may be in throwing off the Elmes from out of the Gardens; I must profess myself afraid to see, being steadily attached to all my old acquaintance and in gratitude for its favourable shade (so oft by stealth oft since - with less of difficulty afforded me) obliged to regret the loss of a variety so pleasing, a retreat from the intolerable, midday sun, so charmingly agreeable.

Letter from Maurice Johnson’s son Maurice in London about a failure to buy orange trees: Charing Cross March 19th 1741 I was favoured with Yours Honoured Sir. of the 15th and am very much pleased to hear my Grandfather is so much mended, but very sorry to hear my grandmother continues in so very lingring a state. May God deliver her out of it one way or other, for even Death is much to be preferred to her condition & more especially as she is so good a Woman, and so well prepared for another State. I am very glad to hear my Uncle goes down so well (I hope he did not keep Couz Wilsby up too late o nights upon the Rode & so mistime him). He will tell you the reason why I sent you as Ink Glasses, & as to Bumber Glass: now Burnt Ale is out of fashion there are none to be met with, but those you have are very good & fashionable. I have not yet been able to meet with any Orange Trees but if any come between this & the Time of Capt Withers being down will send my mother a couple- to whome be pleased to present my duty. I am very glad to hear sister Harryot will come up to Town with the Capn. Who I am sure will take good care of her, but fear she is worse of her complaint again if so I am sure it is absolutely necessary for her to come up, but will say no more of it. With my Love to sister Butter- her Secretary pray let her know I will execute her orders [But must know how much she is willing to go so for your care have one under £1.5s] so please likewise to let Sister Grace know her Chairs will be very soone done & and her necklace by Saturday but was forced to buy her two rows of Perls for the love knots [are] worn out and quite out of fashion I desire she will let me know her orders about it. […] she mentioned for I have either lost or mislaid her Letter which is full as bad I am Sr. with Duty where due your obed.t Son M Johnson Letter from Dr Dixon Colby about a shared interest in flowers and plants. Johnson has sent a plant for him and another for the Countess of Exeter’s garden at Burghley: Letter from Dr Dixon Colby of Stamford of Vegetables as a florist in answer to sent him with a pot for the Rt Hon the Countess of Exeter of Burleigh and another for the Dr of Malva Horaria these’d given to Dr Walker by Ld Petre No 50 The plants came safe, and the pleasure had from receiving such so agreeable a present from my friend Mr Johnson will not fade, but remain with me when flowers are no more. I sent the other plant to the Countess, who I daresay will have a true value for whatever shall come from Mr Johnson; for [??] her Ladyship abounds in beauty of yr kind, yet in the vegetable world as in the Natural the [??] never satisfied, for we want whatever have not, [??] tired with it we have, and neither the East nor the West Indies can confirm the imagination of a true florist. Last year I sowed no [??] them [??] a pinch of Ranunculus seed, but to my great disappointment raised not one. I know not what [??] put it to, unless there was some propensity in the air wanting, occasioned by the severe old seasons, to invigorate the seeds of plants whose native climate is so much warmer than our own. Perhaps a Gent. Of your curious sagacity may give me a better. I shall be very proud of an intercourse which the Vegetable world may afford us: a World [??] from most of the [???} which attend the great over and subject to few Disappointments.but those with a severe winter, or an unkind Spring may occasion. You know, Sr. my ground is very small and therefore have no room for sub[???] Of any sorts, but content myself with a few Tulips, Ranunculus and anemones; and sud[??] Amongst the best of those Jean, being greatly obliged to my friends in obliging me with the best the Country affords, except, what is always to be excepted, the parterres at Burghley. I beg Sr. my complements to all the good family and am Yr Most Obedient humble Svt Dr Colby

Letter from Maurice Johnson to Mr Birch: Spalding 18 February 1752 ‘Gardens and vegetables, not before attended to, because not understood;… Machines and Engines of use in Draining and Agriculture, Yncio and the animals not till of late regarded: ‘As an ornament to my canal, I have, wing-shot this winter (presented to me by my son-in-law Mr Wallis, a member of our society) a beautiful diver, a water fowl a half bird…It lives, as my gardener tells me, on worms; it gets them out of the walks by night…it swims incomparably and dives dextrously and for its diversion will frequently swim underwater ten or a dozen yards at a time, hes a bold bird, and a fowler told me called the Sea Nymph and the Drake of his Line. His upper beak hooks a little over his under, and it is very sharp and strong, and I should have rather kept him in other water than with good carp and tench, but that my neighbour the Fowler (who is also a fisherman) assured me, he is harmless as to fish, of any size at least, and he is not in a breeding pond. John Nichols Reliquiae Galeanae p.411 Letter to Thomas Birch 21 July 1750 Mentions ‘the [Leaviriis] of Africa flore pheenicio foliis balsamo occidentalis in full blow by Gardiner also the Citisus verus Virgilii in 3rd Blossoms of the Yeare of a fine French yellow. British Library Add MS 4310 ff292 Surtee’s Society 73 (1882) Stukeley’s Letters and Diaries I p.89 Letter of William Stukeley to Miriam: 2 October 1754 …That day I set two tulip trees in my garden at Stamford, two firs and a cedar of libanus, which the Duke of Montagu sent me, … p.209 Letter of William Stukeley to Samuel Gale: Grantham 14 October 1728 …I spent Saturday morning last with Ivo Talbois [Maurice Johnson]… His garden is very curios and entertaining. The greens are exceedingly fine and stately, and his collection of odiferous, and exotic, plants, flowers, shrubs, etc., is highly delightful. He loaded me home with roots and seeds of pomegranate, balm of gilead, etc., for my garden. Surtee’s Society 76 (1883) Stukeley’s Letters and Diaries II p.306 Diary Entry September 23 1742 Mr Johnson has the Naples medlar, the icy sedum, and a vast number of curios plants in his garden p.322 Stukeley, in paraphrasing his eulogy to Maurice Johnson upon his death in 1755 says, …Mr Johnson was a great lover of gardening and planting, had an admirable collection of flowers, flowering shrubs, fruit trees, exotics, an excellent cabinet of medals… Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc. c.113

Maurice Johnson to William Stukeley: 11 May 1751 Those fine elms…afford me many a shady morning walk, support me fragrant Woodbinds and, …and from the terrace they stand on I’ve a delightful view of my Canal, which this last dry summer scoured out to the very Springs and is full of good water… Laying a flight of stone stepps to the very bottom of it which I bought from the demolition of Duckhall, rendered it safe and useful for Batheing, and ready for the Gardiners constant service in watering the trees and plants, without breaking and defacing the slope of the terrace which I have made exact and beautyfull. By our great drought and want of water and loss of my fish I was so discouraged…while as almost to be determined to plant the sides with Aquaticks I left it wild, but my son prevailed upon me to set a gang of workmen well experienced and to bear the charge of a scouring out the canal and repairing the slopes, which I do not repent of, and hope it will give you pleasure and have your approbation. Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc.c.113. Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc. c.113 Maurice Johnson to William Stukeley: 23 October 1719 A letter about Mr Atkinson, recently dead, who left a widow but no children. His house, with stables, brewhouse and other offices and a pretty garden and orchard under, by his will given to the Masters of the Free grammar school of this town.. Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc.c.113. Maurice Johnson to William Stukeley: 16 April 1728 ‘After term I came hither charmed with the delights of nature, though it be nature in the Fenns. I a good deal cultivate vegetables of all sorte, from the Oak to the sedums, and have so encouraged a love for gardening in my children that we are a family of Botanists, and perhaps it’s better for us that our bounds are contracted by a river, a churchyard that tho’ we may […] the more spacious, we have but small ground to cultivate. Between that very […] which gives to and I spend my time… and rarely, very rarely, seek out any field sports or take the diversions of this town which are Bowling, Billiards etc for I seldom, but so visit a neighbour […]from home… We have fitted up a handsome square room… and we have a pretty little garden spott and a good cellar belonging to it where we take a sober glass, are cheerful together, and communicate thoughts to each other in a quiet and social way once a week. Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc. c.113 Maurice Johnson to William Stukeley: 5 January 1732 Refers to concerts held on the first Thursday in the New Year in the house, next to the Museum, with tea and coffee, and a glass of wine…(his letters frequently mentions concerts put on by the SGS here, with Members playing. Bodleian Library Eng. Misc.c.113. Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc. c.113

Maurice Johnson to William Stukeley: 9 January 1744 I’ve herewith sent you what variety I had in my nursery of Flowering Trees and Shrubs to yield Sweet Odour, and give a beauty to your Boscage, being planted before your taller trees, mindfull of Silvester’s saying He who delights to plant, and set, Makes after-ages in his debt. Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc. c.113 Maurice Johnson to William Stukeley: 15 March 1745 We brew our own ale and have a cellar and pipes and tobacco, for their must be some ale with our history…and mentions the Society fees which ‘pays for…and keeping our own garden too.’ We have our own Operator (Ever a Chyr. & Apothecary) having an hortus siccus, a coll. Of specimens of the Materia Medica, … Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc. c.113 A letter from Maurice Johnson to William Stukeley: 22 September 1750 (about how the hurricane …having blew done elm trees between the house and the churchyard and branches from his walnut trees, and other trees blown down…) Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc. c.113 Maurice Johnson to William Stukeley: 13 October 1750 ‘Our drought and consequently want of fresh water continues still, but having scoured out my canal and deepened it a foot I came to a white quick sand which has afforded me and many of my neighbours excellent soft, sweet, clear and well-tasted water both for washing and brewing and allsorts of household uses, a great blessing… Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc. c.113 Maurice Johnson to William Stukeley: 9 March 1753 This has been a wet yeare, and wee had a greater number of small carp, taken in our wash…than I ever knew which has given me an opportunity of stocking my Canal with them at a reasonable rate, which I have done with Tench… Letter Book of William Stukeley Bodleian Library Eng. Misc. c.113

Appendix 3: A Selection of gardening books available in the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society library

• Bird 1648 Natural History of Brazil

• Blackstone 1746 Specimen Botanicum

• Blair 1721 Botanic Essays

• Borlase 1758 Natural History of Cornwall

• Richard Bradley (gardener) 1718? New Improvements of planting and gardening

• Richard Bradley 1728 Botanical Dictionary (2nd Edition)

• Hales 1727 Vegetable Stat

• Hill 1751 On Plants

• Laurence 1726 On Gardening

• Malpigius 1675 Anatomy of Plants

• Philip Miller 1720 Gardeners Dictionary

• Thomas Moffett Insectorum Theatrum 1634

• Parson 1745 On Seeds

• Stephen Switzer 1724 Practical Fruit Garadener

• Tournefort 1718 History of Plants (herbal)

• Tournefort 1719 The Compleat Herbal