DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0057
THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
35
mews at Charing, and likewise to make the king’s kitchen-
garden there.” Henry III.’s chief garden was at Woodstock,
but he was not the originator of it, as there had been a
garden there in the time of the second Henry. In it was the
labyrinth which concealed the “ Bower,” made famous by the
tragic fate of the “Fair Rosamond.” A halo of romance and
mystery hangs round this hiding place, but in reality labyrinths
were by no means uncommon. There is evidence of the
existence of labyrinths in very early times, and they, presumably,
suggested the maze of more modern date. The first lab}zrinths
were winding paths cut in the ground, and the survival of
these is still traceable in several places in England. Of these,
Saffron Walden, with its encircling ditch, is a most striking
example. Camden describes one existing in his time in
Dorsetshire, which went by the name of Troy Town or Julian’s
Bower.* * * §
In 1250, Henry III. improved the gardens at Woodstock for
his queen. Among certain works which he commanded the
Bailiff of Woodstock to perform, were the following:—“To
make round about the garden of our Queen two walls, good
and high, so that no one may be able to enter, with a
becoming and honourable herbary near our fish pond, in which
the same Queen may be able to amuse herself;—and with
a certain gate from the herbary which is next the chapel of
Edward our son, into the aforesaid garden.” f Again, on
August 19th, 1252, the order was given to turf the “ great
herbarium.” J The word herbarium may simply mean a place
where herbs were grown, but in this case it seems as if it
were used for “ herber,” the old English word for arbour,
which only means a shelter, or “ harbour.”
The same year, among other works at Clarendon the
queen’s “herbarium” was to be “remade and amended.” §
* Camden s Britannia, by Gough, 1806. Vol. I., p. 73.
J Liberate Roll, 34 Hen. III., m. 6—Dated at Wodestok, 20 June,
“ cum herbario decent! et honesto prope vivarium nostrum, in quo ipsa
Regina possit spaciari.”
J Ibid., 36 Hen. III., m. 4.
§ Ibid., 36 Hen. III., July 9th, m. 6
3 *
35
mews at Charing, and likewise to make the king’s kitchen-
garden there.” Henry III.’s chief garden was at Woodstock,
but he was not the originator of it, as there had been a
garden there in the time of the second Henry. In it was the
labyrinth which concealed the “ Bower,” made famous by the
tragic fate of the “Fair Rosamond.” A halo of romance and
mystery hangs round this hiding place, but in reality labyrinths
were by no means uncommon. There is evidence of the
existence of labyrinths in very early times, and they, presumably,
suggested the maze of more modern date. The first lab}zrinths
were winding paths cut in the ground, and the survival of
these is still traceable in several places in England. Of these,
Saffron Walden, with its encircling ditch, is a most striking
example. Camden describes one existing in his time in
Dorsetshire, which went by the name of Troy Town or Julian’s
Bower.* * * §
In 1250, Henry III. improved the gardens at Woodstock for
his queen. Among certain works which he commanded the
Bailiff of Woodstock to perform, were the following:—“To
make round about the garden of our Queen two walls, good
and high, so that no one may be able to enter, with a
becoming and honourable herbary near our fish pond, in which
the same Queen may be able to amuse herself;—and with
a certain gate from the herbary which is next the chapel of
Edward our son, into the aforesaid garden.” f Again, on
August 19th, 1252, the order was given to turf the “ great
herbarium.” J The word herbarium may simply mean a place
where herbs were grown, but in this case it seems as if it
were used for “ herber,” the old English word for arbour,
which only means a shelter, or “ harbour.”
The same year, among other works at Clarendon the
queen’s “herbarium” was to be “remade and amended.” §
* Camden s Britannia, by Gough, 1806. Vol. I., p. 73.
J Liberate Roll, 34 Hen. III., m. 6—Dated at Wodestok, 20 June,
“ cum herbario decent! et honesto prope vivarium nostrum, in quo ipsa
Regina possit spaciari.”
J Ibid., 36 Hen. III., m. 4.
§ Ibid., 36 Hen. III., July 9th, m. 6
3 *