Themes

In his Journal , Gilles mentions six gardens attached to his domaine in Le Mesnil-au-Val. Of all his kitchen gardens and orchards, in which mostly apple and pear trees or willows used for wickerwork were planted, only the « jardin à mouches » ( fly garden) contained beehives, the word « mouches » ( flies) being used to designate « mouches à miel » ( honey flies) or bees.

Research carried out by Marcel Roupsard and the map he drew illustrating the reconstitution of land parcels in the 16th century on Gilles de Gouberville's property locate these gardens “ which occupied almost two and a half acres of space between the manor house and the path, next to the forest .” (1)

It is strange however that although the « jardin à mouches » ( fly garden) is mentioned 26 times, most of the occurrences concern the garden as a cultivated parcel and only two of them actually mention the « mouches à miel » (bees) .

The “garden”

In the garden Gilles planted «  pépins » or seedlings, a term used to designate both apple and pear seeds and the shoots that were replanted in the nursery garden.

Je fys arracher par Cantepye et François Dauge quatre mil six centz pepins au jardin à mouches pour planter au dit closet. (6 mars 1550)

I had Cantepye and François Dauge pull up six hundred seedlings in the fly garden to plant in the said field. (March 6, 1550)

The field called the “ closet du Vivier” was the nursery garden that Gilles had just created near the parish church; on several occasions, up until 1552, he had “seedlings” transplanted.

At the very beginning of the Journal , a gardener from Bayeux is mentioned who came to the manor house to take care of the vegetable garden and the hives. Although Gilles omits to actually name the garden, what he reports seems to indicate that it was definitely the fly garden:

Je fys faire à Douart une tombe [fosse] au jardin et chasser les mouches . (5 juillet 1549).

I had Douart dig a pit in the garden and chase the flies. (July 5, 1549)

Gilles gave him “ XII sols pour ce qu'il avoyt este céans à jardine ” (16 mai 1550) (twelve sous for what he had done in the garden here - May 16, 1550) : that is sowing lettuces and spinach and planting melliferous herbs like aspic and lavender.

There are no other mentions of the “fly garden” as a garden until 1556, when Gilles had the garden “rigged out and prepared ” on August 14 (« accoutrer et dresser le jardin aulx mouches »): the cabbages were moved, the onions planted, fertilizer was put on the herbariums where the parsnips were sown. In February 1561, Gilles had seedlings planted once again.

The “ flies”

Mentions of the “flies” were most frequent in 1552 (and 1553), referring to both the work that had to be carried out in order to install the garden and to the honey flies themselves. Making space for new beehives would explain why so many seedlings were removed. On two occasions, Gilles obtained the material he needed from the quarries in Le Mesnil-au-Val:

Je m'en allé à la Bryayre , Nicollas et Hamel avecques moy, je leur fys dresser et eschapplir [équarrir ] des pierres de la dite carrière pour assoyer des mouches à myel, nous y fusmes viron VI heures (15 juillet 1552).

I went to La Bryayre with Nicollas and Hamel, I had them set up and square the stones from this quarry on which to place the honey flies. We were there for about six hours. (July 15, 1552)

Je charrier VI chartées de pierre à la carrière du presbitayre pour besogner au jardin à mouches ( 25 novembre 1552).

I carted six loads of stone from the presbytery quarry to be used in the fly garden. (November 25, 1552)

However we do not know whether this large quantity of stone was to be used for building or repairing a wall.

Gilles unfortunately left us no description of his hives. It can be supposed that they were made of straw and placed upon stones set upon the ground or integrated into the wall.

In 1552, from May to July, he obtained eleven swarms, which is a very large number; he acquired only six more in 1553 and practically no other purchases are mentioned the following years. Should it be inferred that he set up as many hives? Wild swarms were retrieved outdoors:

Nous fusmes recueuillyr un essain de mouches au boys (..) il estoyt deux heures de nuyct quand nous en revinsmes (16 mai 1552)

We went to catch a swarm of flies in the woods (…) it was two o'clock in the morning when we returned. (May 16, 1552)

Swarms could also be exchanged:

Loys Fréret me donna un essain à choisir sur XXIII vesseaulx qu'il ha (...) je [lui] donne ung boisseau de froment. (31 mai 1552)

Loys Fréret let me choose a swarm out of the 23 vessels that he has (…) I gave him a bushel of wheat. (May 31, 1552)

To supply his hives, Gilles appeals more often than not to the clergy ( missires ). The swarms were either purchased for the price of one bushel of wheat, that is about 12 sous in 1551 or were given as a present:

Apprès soupper je m'en allé chez missire Richard Gallye, au Teil (…) J'achatté ung essain de mouches dud. Gallye (…) Quand vinst à payer, il ne voulut prendre d'argent . (30 mai 1553)

After supper, I went to see missire Richard Gallye in Le Theil (… ) I bought a swarm of flies from him (…) When the time came to pay, he didn't want any money. (May 30, 1553)

The swarms were always transferred after nightfall. They were hidden:

Je fys terrer les mouches que j'avoys hier soyer [soir] chez les Troude (15 juin 1553)

I had the flies that I got last night from the Troude covered up. (June 15, 1553)

To harvest the honey and retrieve the wax, Gilles had the hives “chased” (« chasser »). The notes on this operation are always very brief:

Au soyer Henry Gardin me chassa deux ruches, présent Gilles Auvray . (12 juin 1552)

In the evening Henry Gardin chased two hives for me, a present from Gilles Auvray. (June 12, 1552)

He had the honey squeezed out ( (« extraindre » ) and conserved in pots supplied by a potter from Brix, and the wax melted and formed into a ball because it was getting spoiled (« se gastoyt » - July 25, 1561).

Honey, the only sweetener besides sugar which Gilles bought only for the ill, is not mentioned as being consumed in the manor house. Most of the time it was given to women in labour or confinement or to the sick. For example, on March 8, 1560 « deux quartes de miel » (two quarts of honey) were sent to Mademoiselle de Tourlaville who had the quartum fever (kind of paludism). Honey was also sold, its price estimated at one ecu for two pots in October 1560.

The references to the gardens in the Journal do not provide us with details about the space they occupied, the variety of the plants cultivated or the quantity of honey and wax obtained; Gilles noted down what interested him and the information that he gives is sometimes scanty and imprecise; for example for four days in September 1556, two servants entitled to work in the garden « besognèrent au jardin à mouches » (worked in the fly garden), but nothing is said about what they actually did.

We don't even know if the wax was used to make candles for the manor house. It was sold at fairs in Montebourg « pour cent sols » (for seven sous) in August 1557, in Valognes « pour cent IIIs.VI d. » (three sous, six deniers) in December 1560, but we don't know for what quantity.

What we do know is that Gilles raised “flies” with great care and sold his honey, but, as is often the case, he remains too vague to satisfy our curiosity.

Let us conclude with a small anecdote from the Journal :

Marin Blanguesdon prinst ce jour une taulpe au jardin à mouches, la plus grande que je vy jamais (9 juillet 1562) 

Marin Blanguesdon caught a mole in the fly garden, the biggest I have ever seen. (July 9, 1562)

(1) Reference and map extracted from « Le domaine de Gilles de Gouberville et son évolution paysagère », by Marcel Roupsard. In Histoire et Sociétés rurales , n°17 - Ed. Association d'Histoire des Sociétés Rurales , Caen, 2002. The map was also published in Les Cahiers goubervilliens , n°7.

N.B.: All dates are given in the new style with the year changing on the first of January.

Anne Bonnet