Medieval English horticulture

656. In the thirteenth century (A.D. 1294), the monks of Dunstable were at much expense in repairing the walls about the garden and herbary of their priory; and the herbary mentioned in Chaucer's Nonne's Priest's Tale appears to have been well stored with medical herbs, shrubs, &c. Paris, in describing the backwardness of the seasons in 1257, says, that 'apples were scarce, pears still scarcer; but that cherries, plums, figs, and all kinds of fruits included in shells, were almost quite destroyed.' (Henry's Hist. b. iv. chap. 5. sect. I.)