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When the company had its own Hall these educational expeditions were arranged regularly and with
efficiency, and once a year there was a general simpling day and later six each summer. The
first was led by the Master who bore the cost of providing the dinner In later years the demonstration
of plants by expert botanists became a regular practice especially after the Orangery
had been built at Physick Garden.
The Garden Committee of the Company consisted of Livery Men with a profound knowledge
of botany. From them demonstrators were always available to teach on the outings on the long
summer days in the woods and fields which lay in their natural beauty so near the City, so that
this played a part in the training of the apprentices in addition to the herborising excursions
to the Physick Garden,
Of course the name Physick Garden used at the time to describe all the botanic gardens did
not refer specially to the physick of doctors. It was used in the old phylosophical sense of physic
as belonging to nature or natural science, It meant a garden in which botany as a branch of natural
science might be studied or taught. The gardens at both Kew and Oxford were so named at first.
That it persisted at Chelsea was due to its association with the Apothecaries. A physick garden
was a necessity for the Society of Apothecaries for the education of apprentices as well as the
honour and dignity of the Society. In 1673 the Society rented a ground by the riverside at Chelsea
and built on it a house for its new barge. By 1676 it had a brick wall provided to enclose it.
Nectarines of all sorts, apricots, plums, cherries and peaches were planted and a fine water gate
was placed in the encircling wall to the south of the riverside. Flanking the gate four rare cedars
of Lebanon were planted. Two of these were cut down in 1771 to gain space for more plants but
two remained and were admired by all who visited the gardens. The chairs of the Master and
Wardens now in use were made in 1812 and 1842 from the wood of the trees that were cut down.
The gardens soon became famous and Dr. Hans Sloan was closely associated with it.
(2) Fishmongers' Company
The second Livery Company which I wish to mention is the Fishmongers, one of Twelve
Great Companies of the City of London and among the most ancient of City Guilds — it has an
unbroken existence for more than 700 years. The Fishmongers of London are known to have been
an organised community long before Edward I in A.D. 1272 granted them their first Charter. That
Charter and others granted in the reigns of Edward II and Edward III provided that no fish could
be sold in London except by the 'Mistery of Fishmongers'. They also limited the markets at
which fish could be sold in the City and made it the duty of the Wardens of the Mistery to oversee
the buying and the selling of fish to ensure that none but fish of sound quality was offered for
sale. In this respect we encounter the Public Health aspect of their functions. Later Charters
formally incorporated the Company and laid down rules for its governance and the regulation of
trade. They were granted in the reigns of Richard II, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VII, Henry VIII,
Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth I and James I.
The fourteenth century was a period of great expansion for the Fishmongers. With the granting
of their Charters, their wealth and influence increased enormously and they took a very prominent
part in the affairs of the City. They had secured the enjoyment of a complete monopoly of the
sale of fish — one of the chief necessities of life in the Middle Ages. The Fishmongers were
required to furnish three ships for the Royal Navy in the reign of Edward I and on his return from
the successful war in Scotland, they furnished him with a most imposing pageant. A similar
pageant was made by the Guild in the reign of Edward II on the birth of the young Prince who
afterwards became Edward III. They caused a boat to be fitted out "in the guise of a great ship
with all manner of tackle that belongs to a ship and it sailed through Chepe as far as Westminster".
The Fishmongers there presented the ship to the Queen and then "all well mounted and costumed
very richly" escorted her through, the City on her departure to Canterbury on pilgrimage. In the
reign of Edward III the Company made a substantial contribution to the cost of the Hundred Years'
War with France.
From the beginning to the end of the fourteenth century the inhabitants of the City of London
were largely concerned with the vexed question whether there should be free trade in food or not
and the Fishmongers were at the head of what were known as the Victualling Guilds, whose
interests in retaining their monopolies were opposed by the Craft Guilds who wanted free trade in
food, but not in the goods they manufactured themselves.
The monopoly was challenged unsuccessfully in the reign of Edward II (1307 - 1327") but was
confirmed by the Charters of Edward III (1327 - 1377). In the year 1381, thePrime Warden of the
Fishomngers Company, Sir William Walworth, slew WatTyler, the leader of the Peasant's Rebeliion,
in Smithfield Market when he was threatening the life of the young king (Richard II). Two years
afterwards, an influential Lord Mayor of London, John of Northampton, who was the leader of the
free trade party, persuaded the Common Council of the City of London to declare that the Fishmongers
were not entitled to monopolise the fish trade and that decision was confirmed by Parliament.
In the new Charter granted to the Company by Richard II in 1399, all their privileges
were restored and they were given license to elect six Wardens which is the present number.