'The Garden of Love,' from the earliest known Flemish engraving (circa 1450), by 'Der Meister der Liebesgärten.' the poet-king, James I. of Scotland, who from his prison in Windsor Castle spies 'A Garden fair; and in the Corners set An Herbere greene, with Wandis long and small Railit about.' The 'wands' or railings, as a division of the beds before the use of box, may also be seen, painted green and white, the Tudor colours, in the backgrounds of Holbein's pictures of Will Somers and Jane the Fool. Chaucer's garden in 'Troilus and Cresseide,' also preserves this feature and the sanded alleys: This Yerde 1 was large, and railed al the aleyes The medieval garden from the illumination of the 'Roman de la Rose' is shown both in Miss Amherst's 'History' and in the 'Formal Garden in England,'2 and valuable illustrations are to be found in the 'Songe de Poliphile' and the illuminations of a French MS. of the late fifteenth-century 'Le Rustican des Profits Ruraux' by Croissant, and in the Psalter of Edwin in Trinity College, Cambridge, is given the private garden of one of the canons.3 Less familiar is the pleasure garden here copied from the earliest known Flemish engraving (about 1450) called the 'Garden of Love,' in which the occupants of the garden are depicted as engaged in all sorts of diversions, love-making, feasting, playing cards and music. The beasts of the field and birds of the air, monkeys and parrots even, are revelling amid perspectiveless scenery of conventialised trefoil-trees and running water, and large detached flowers are strewn upon the grass in the fore 1 Yerde or Yard (surviving in the Pond Yard at Hampton Court) was the earlier form of the word Garden, both being of the same etymology (the Anglo-Saxon 'geard ') and signifying an enclosure-the Scotch form 'Garth' comes half-way between the two-and other forms of the word are innumerable. In Holland's Pliny we find hort-yard for orchard. 2 By Reginald Blomfield and Inigo Thomas. 3 See Archæological Journal, vol. iv. p. 160. Y ground, suggesting the art of the goldsmith rather than of the gardener.1 Dr Andrew Boorde (whom the Dictionary of National Biography no longer allows to be the original 'Merry Andrew') in his 'Dyetary of Health' will have attached to a mansion a 'fayre garden, repleted wyth herbes of aromatyck and redolent savours, with a poole or two for fysche'; and the 'Mesnagier de Paris' gives a long list of all the herbs and plants which ought to be cultivated in the garden. But the design of the garden, rather than its contents, is our theme, and we must consult the work of the French architect, Androuet du Cerceau, 'Les plus Excellents Bastiments de France,' for bird's-eye views and plans of the gardens of the 'Thuileries,' Montargis, the Châteaux of Blois and Gaillon, and many others.2 The gardens of St. Germain-en-Laye built for Henry II., running down to the Seine in a series of terraces under which were grottoes in rock and shell-work, and figures disporting themselves in the waters, were considered one of the marvels of the age. The grotto has always played an important rôle in the history of gardens from the mythical one of Calypso to those of Palissy enamelled over with creeping things in pottery, and the bespa'd and be-mirrored creation of Pope at Twickenham.3 4 To come back to England in the days of Henry VIII. The best known Tudor gardens were Nonesuch near Ewell in Surrey described by Hentzner; Theobalds, of which we have a picture from the Parliamentary Survey of 1650, to which date we may assume it to have been undisturbed; and greatest of all, Hampton Court. They are characterised by moats and walls, while the 1 I am indebted to Mr Sidney Colvin for drawing my attention to Professor Max Lehr's monograph on this print, and to the latter for permission to reproduce his collotype. 2 See ante p. 51. 3 See ante pp. 45-50 and 143. 4 See ante p. 73. In the Greate Garden are nine large compleate squares or knotts lyinge upon a levell in ye middle of ye said Garden, whereof one is sett forth with box borders in ye likeness of ye Kinges armes, one other plott is planted with choice flowers; the other 7 knotts are all grass knotts, handsomely turfed in the intervalls or little walkes. a Quicksette hedge of White Thorne |