the good things that may come of acclimatisation.
Although the red deer are indigenous in our
forests, and were once numerous, they have long
ceased to be valued amongst the requirements
of modern luxury. The beautiful fallow deer,
the type of the palmated or platycene group, the
denizen of our parks, was brought to England
from the South of Europe, into which it is
believed to have been originally introduced from
Western Africa, and in these warmer climates it
attains a larger size than with us in its semi-
domesticated state.

Fish, too, has been acclimatised, and although
neither the exact period when, nor the particular
country whence, the carp was first brought
to England very distinctly appears, they are
mentioned as dainties in 1496, and in the privy
purse expenses of Henry the Eighth, in 1532,
we find entries of rewards to persons for "bringing
carps to the king." Experiments so early
and so successful, in which the several quarters
of the globe have been contributories to our en-
joyments in fish, flesh, and fowl, encourage us
to hope that, with vastly increased opportunities,
and direct attention to the subject, we may, by
judicious selection, obtain other aids comforts
and luxuries, hereafter to be prized.

The horse is supposed to have been indigenous
in almost every country, yet in no animal
are the effects of acclimatisation more striking
than in the horses of an English racing stud.
When Caesar landed on the coast of Kent, he
was heroically received by the mounted warriors
and war-chariots of the ancient Britons, but it
is believed that the Romans imported a valuable
breed into England. The chroniclers tell us
that our Anglo-Saxon sovereigns brought from
Germany, horses formed both for endurance and
for speed, while the Normans were proud of the
noble chargers, often of Spanish origin, that bore
them and their weighty armour. Richard Coeur
de Lion failed in an attempt to bring to Eng-
land two steeds of Eastern birth, which, during
the Crusades, he had bought at Cyprus; and his
worthless brother John had recourse to Flanders
for their heavy breed. The marriage of an
English queen with a Spanish prince, enabled
the nobility in the reign of Mary to procure
some fine Andalusian horses. The barb, or steed
of the desert, has been in all ages celebrated for
its speed, its endurance, and its beauty, and we
can trace back Eastern blood to the reign of
James the First. The celebrated Darley Arabian,
bred in the deserts of Palmyra, became, in
the days of Anne, the progenitor of our renowned
racing stock, and was the founder of the Eclipse
family. The Godolphin Arabian, purchased
from under a cart in Paris, afterwards contributed
to the celebrity of the English racing
stud, traceable from son to sire to Arabian or
barb ancestry. While the English blood-horse
is superior in symmetry, strength, and speed
to every other animal of the race on earth, the
changes in colour and condition, which excite
our admiration during the warmth of the summer
months, betray, like other children of the sun,
his Eastern origin. The wealthy brewers and
distillers pride themselves on displaying the
splendid horses under their drays, exceeding all
others in stature, power, and massiveness. These
magnificent animals are unquestionably not
indigenous, the large heavy horses of Flanders
and of Normandy having been acclimatised for
their production.

For fruits and vegetables we are still more
indebted to the introduction of good things out
of other lands. The vine followed the Greeks,
the wheat the Romans, the cotton the Arabs, and
the potato the English. The Romans brought
the cabbage in the train of their conquests, and
although the wild apple is a native of England,
it is believed that we also owe to the Romans
the cultivated fruit. The cherry was brought
to Italy by the Roman general Lucullus, 73 A.C.,
from the Asiatic town Cerasus, in Pontus, from
which the name is derived, and we obtained that
favourite fruit from our invaders. Lydgate, the
monk, who in his poem London Lickpenny,
describes his passing through London in 1415,
tells us that he heard them "cry straberys ripe
and cherryes on the ryse;" that is, cherries on
twigs, a fashion not yet out of date. The peach
came direct from Persia to Rome, in the reign
of Claudius, but was unknown in England until
about the middle of the sixteenth century; and
the apricot, a native of the East, was procured
from Italy by Wolfe, a French priest, who was
gardener to Henry the Eighth. Hops were
first brought from the Netherlands in 1524, and
the City of London early petitioned parliament
against their use, on the ground that " they
would spoil the taste of drink and endanger the
people." Although forbidden by an act of
James the First, our ales have acquired the
appellation of the wines of England. The bean
came originally from the East, but was probably
cultivated in England by the Romans; the
kidney bean is a native of India, and was first
grown in this country in the reign of Elizabeth.
The pea is a native of Southern Europe, and
although early reared in England, Fuller tells us
that in Elizabeth's reign green peas were brought
from Holland, and were "fit dainties for ladies,
they came so far and cost so dear." The onion
is supposed to have been a native of Spain, the
leek of Switzerland, and the eschalot of Palestine,
found originally, as its name imports, near
Ascalon. The radish and the endive are natives
of China; parsley is from Sardinia, the artichoke
from Southern Europe, brocoli from Cyprus, the
walnut from Persia. These were all introduced
in the reign of Elizabeth, and the red beet is
first mentioned in the days of the Commonwealth.
To the adventurous spirit of enterprise
which distinguished the Elizabethan age, we
also owe the potato, which was imported from
Virginia by Raleigh, when a favourite of his
royal mistress, on his return from that colony.
An ancient ballad records its arrival:

The famed "Walter Raleigh, Queen Bess's own
knight,
Brought here from Virginia the root of delight.

Crabbe, in his homely but nervous rhymes,