To the green wood to gather strawberries,
There chaunst to them a dangerous accident."

Very old, too is the following nursery rhyme, which, nevertheless,
suggests the true habitat of the F. vesca species:--

"The man of the wilderness asked me
How many strawberries grew in the sea;
I answered him, as I thought good,
'As many red herrings as grew in the wood.'"

The ambrosial combination of strawberries and cream was first named by
Sir Philip Sidney. Old Thomas Tusser, of the 16th century, in his
work, "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry united to as many of Good
Housewifery," turns the strawberry question over to his wife, and
doubtless it was in better hands than his, if his methods of culture
were as rude as his poetry:--

"Wife, into the garden, and set me a plot
With strawberry roots, of the best to be got;
Such, growing abroad, among thorns in the wood,
Well chosen and picked prove excellent good."

Who "Dr. Boteler" was, or what he did, is unknown, but he made a
sententious remark which led Izaak Walton to give him immortality in
his work, "The Compleat Angler." "Indeed, my good schollar," the
serene Izaak writes, "we may say of angling as Dr. Boteler said of
strawberries, 'Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but
doubtless God never did;' and so if I might be judge, God never did
make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling." If this