DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0016
viii PREFACE.
each successive fashion ; and to enumerate others would
only have been to multiply instances. It is hoped rather
that this work, inadequate though it is in comparison with
the vastness of the subject, may in some measure serve as
a handbook by which to classify gardens, and fix the dates
to which they belong. In many cases it must always be
difficult to assign an exact date to a garden, as although
frequently a garden adjoining the house has existed from
very early times, the changes, though few, have been so
gradual that it is almost impossible to determine for
certain the time at which they assumed their present
condition. I have to thank the many friends who have
very kindly afforded me information respecting their
gardens, and provided me with plans or photographs,
or who have given me ready access to the MSS. in their
possession in public or private collections.
I also wish gratefully to acknowledge the kindness of
Mr. J. G. Baker, f.r.s., in looking over the following
pages whilst still in proof sheets. The correction of the
proofs had been rendered an easy task for me by the kind
co-operation of my friend, Miss Margaret MacArthur. My
thanks are also due to Professor Skeat and Mr. James
Britten for their help in the identification of some of the
plants mentioned in the fifteenth century MSS., and to
Mr. R. E. G. Kirk who assisted me in decyphering some
of the earlier Latin ones, also to Mr. Michael Kerney for
revising my bibliography of printed books on gardening to
the end of the seventeenth century. I regret that the
each successive fashion ; and to enumerate others would
only have been to multiply instances. It is hoped rather
that this work, inadequate though it is in comparison with
the vastness of the subject, may in some measure serve as
a handbook by which to classify gardens, and fix the dates
to which they belong. In many cases it must always be
difficult to assign an exact date to a garden, as although
frequently a garden adjoining the house has existed from
very early times, the changes, though few, have been so
gradual that it is almost impossible to determine for
certain the time at which they assumed their present
condition. I have to thank the many friends who have
very kindly afforded me information respecting their
gardens, and provided me with plans or photographs,
or who have given me ready access to the MSS. in their
possession in public or private collections.
I also wish gratefully to acknowledge the kindness of
Mr. J. G. Baker, f.r.s., in looking over the following
pages whilst still in proof sheets. The correction of the
proofs had been rendered an easy task for me by the kind
co-operation of my friend, Miss Margaret MacArthur. My
thanks are also due to Professor Skeat and Mr. James
Britten for their help in the identification of some of the
plants mentioned in the fifteenth century MSS., and to
Mr. R. E. G. Kirk who assisted me in decyphering some
of the earlier Latin ones, also to Mr. Michael Kerney for
revising my bibliography of printed books on gardening to
the end of the seventeenth century. I regret that the