During the Middle Ages in Britain, the monasteries were the places with the space and the knowledge to garden. Many monasteries were built on the ruins of Roman villas. A well and a fishpond to ...

The myth of the Middle Ages as a “dark age” does not lie in the fact that things declined markedly after the fall of Rome—they did. It lies in the idea that this situation persisted until ...

The Roman Empire was felled as much by viruses as barbarians. The Black Death of the 1340s killed more than 40% of Europe’s population (which puts our little problem into perspective).