Cashiobury Park, the Seat of the Earl of Essex, has been celebrated for upwards of a century and a half, for its plantations and gardens. The latter are said to have been laid out by Le Notre; and an interesting isometrical view of them is given in Kip's Views of the Seats of the Nobility and Gentry, from which fig. 32. has been reduced. Of , Evelyn observes: "No man has been more industrious than this noble lord (Essex), in planting about his seat, adorned with walks, ponds, and other rural elegances..... The gardens are very rare, and cannot be otherwise, having so skilful an artist to govern them as Cooke, who is, as to the mechanical part, not ignorant in mathematics, and pretends to astrology. There is an excellent collection of the choicest fruit. My lord is not illiterate beyond the rate of most noblemen of this age." (Bray's Memoirs.) "My lord," Evelyn informs us, "assisted in pruning the trees himself:" and the gardener he alluded to (Moses Cooke) was the author of The Manner of Raising, Ordering, and Improving Forest Trees, published in 1675; who afterwards became a partner in the famous nursery at Brompton Park. In the dedication of his work, Cooke compliments his master on his "honour's great understanding in, and love to, the subject of" trees. He adds: "For, to your eternal praise be it spoken, there is many a fine tree which you have nursed up from seeds sown by your own hands." Succeeding proprietors seem to have been equally attached to and planting, with the subject of Moses Cooke's praises; so that the character of the place for planting and gardening has continued to increase rather than to diminish.
