DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19489#0072
4o THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND n.
materials collected by another man. Dethicke
or " Mountaine " leads off with a grand list of
twenty-eight authors, in which " Yergile"
appears between Palladius Rutilius and Didymus,
and Hesiod stands next to Africanus. The first
part deals with the garden, the second with the
distillation of herbs. Some suggestions are given
tor the formation of arbours and labyrinths and
the spacing of beds and alleys, but the greater
part of the book is taken up with advice as to
planting, and quotations from authors, such as
"the skilful Rutilius," "the learned Democritus,"
"the worthie Pliny," and "the well-practised
Apuleius." Generally speaking, the writer
conceived of a garden as a small enclosed space,
with a broad walk inside the wall on all tour
sides of a rectangular plot ; and the latter was
to be subdivided into a number of smaller plots
divided by narrow alleys. The maze, or the
labyrinth, or any of the various knots, would
occupy one of the smaller plots. The book
is written in a tedious style, and with much
repetition. Its value consists in the light
which it throws on the average English garden
o o o
of the sixteenth century, as contrasted with the
princely garden sketched by Bacon. A further
point of interest in the book is its curious
superstition. The gardener is carefully to
observe the moon and the aspect of the planets
before he sows. Thus " the moone increasing
and running; between the 28 degree of Taurus
O O
materials collected by another man. Dethicke
or " Mountaine " leads off with a grand list of
twenty-eight authors, in which " Yergile"
appears between Palladius Rutilius and Didymus,
and Hesiod stands next to Africanus. The first
part deals with the garden, the second with the
distillation of herbs. Some suggestions are given
tor the formation of arbours and labyrinths and
the spacing of beds and alleys, but the greater
part of the book is taken up with advice as to
planting, and quotations from authors, such as
"the skilful Rutilius," "the learned Democritus,"
"the worthie Pliny," and "the well-practised
Apuleius." Generally speaking, the writer
conceived of a garden as a small enclosed space,
with a broad walk inside the wall on all tour
sides of a rectangular plot ; and the latter was
to be subdivided into a number of smaller plots
divided by narrow alleys. The maze, or the
labyrinth, or any of the various knots, would
occupy one of the smaller plots. The book
is written in a tedious style, and with much
repetition. Its value consists in the light
which it throws on the average English garden
o o o
of the sixteenth century, as contrasted with the
princely garden sketched by Bacon. A further
point of interest in the book is its curious
superstition. The gardener is carefully to
observe the moon and the aspect of the planets
before he sows. Thus " the moone increasing
and running; between the 28 degree of Taurus
O O