SCOT, Reginald.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden, Third edition, following the first of 1574, of this "entirely original work and the first to be written expressly on the culture of hops in England" (Henrey), here extensively annotated by an early reader. Scot's is "an eminently practical treatise, illustrating the various methods of setting the roots, making the hills and ramming the poles, tying the bine, and its pulling up and preservation, with a number of curious cuts" (Fussell). Before Scot, hops were imported from France, Holland, and Germany and were subject to import duty. It was not until 1524 that hops were first grown in England (in Kent), when they were introduced as an agricultural crop by Dutch farmers. The book was sometime bound up with another text, no longer present; a former owner has written instructions to the binder at the head of the first leaf, blank apart from the signature and typographical ornament: "Note - These Two to be Bound together, but not to be cut in ye least. Marble paper at beginning and end."Provenance: from the library of Professor Robert "Bobby" Boutflour, CBE (1890-1961), with his ownership inscription in pencil, gifted to him by Frank Peter, 20 March 1956, then by family descent. Boutflour was a notable figure in British agricultural circles. From 1931 to 1958, he was principal of the Royal Agricultural University at Cirencester and was responsible for a radical remodelling of the university, expanding the student numbers from 50 to 800 during

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