6. During the period of mental darkness, which prevailed between the eighth and thirteenth centuries, the practice of ornamental gardening had fallen into such general disuse, that it was confined exclusively to the monks. After this period, it began again to spread among the people generally. It revived in Italy, Germany, Holland, and France, long before any attention was paid to it in England.
7. In the latter country, but few culinary vegetables were consumed before the beginning of the sixteenth century, and most of these were brought from Holland; nor was gardening introduced there, as a source of profit, until about one hundred years after that period. Peaches, pears, plums, nectarines, apricots, grapes, cherries, strawberries, and melons, were luxuries but little enjoyed in England, until near the middle of the seventeenth century. The first _hot_ and _ice houses_ known on the island, were built by Charles II., who ascended the British throne in 1660, and soon after introduced French gardening at Hampton Court, Carlton, and Marlborough.
8. About the beginning of the eighteenth century, this art attracted the attention of some of the first characters in Great Britain, who gave it a new impulse in that country. But the style which they imitated was objectionable, inasmuch as the mode of laying out the gardens, and of planting and trimming the trees, was too formal and fantastical.
9. Several eminent writers, among whom were Pope and Addison, ridiculed this Dutch mode of gardening, as it was called, and endeavoured to introduce another, more consistent with genuine taste. Their views were, at length, seconded by practical horticulturists; and those principles of the art which they advocated, were adopted in every part of Great Britain. The English mode has been followed and emulated by the refined nations of the Eastern continent and by many opulent individuals in the United States.
10. Since the beginning of the present century horticultural societies have been formed in every kingdom of Europe. In Great Britain alone, there are no less than fifty; and, it is satisfactory to add, that there are also several of these institutions in the United States. The objects of the persons who compose these societies are, to collect and disseminate information on this interesting art, especially in regard to the introduction of new and valuable articles of cultivation.