May I, as an expat Kentish man, correct a common misapprehension about the term Garden of England, which conjures up the image of a county that resembles an English flower garden (Taittinger announces £4m plan for Kent vineyards, 10 December). In fact, Kentish sheep live in pastures, fruit is grown in orchards, grapes are grown in vineyards. Only hops are reared in gardens. In medieval times an archbishop of Canterbury levied a special tax on fields. He found that landowners in Kent refused to pay the tax on the land where they grew hops for beer-making. On being taken to task, they pointed out that their hops were not being grown in fields, they were being grown in their own gardens. Hence the term hopgardens and thus the Garden of England, a landscape now being devastated with steel, concrete and exhaust fumes. Historians claim that this term was acceptable to the archbishop, so the church would not tax ground where hops were cultivated. I hope this was reflected in the price of Kentish ale which many topers, including priests, believed it to be the best in England.
Geoff Bucknall
Barnard Castle, County Durham
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