DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0099
CHAPTER V.
EARLY TUDOR GARDENS.
“ Sure gates, sweete gardens, stately galleries
Wrought with faire pillowes and fine imageries ;
All those (O pitie!) now are turned to dust
And overgrowne with black oblivion’s rust.”
Spenser, Ruins of Time.
HEOWARDS the end of the fifteenth century fresh influences
were brought to bear on the nation, and consequently
numerous changes set in. The marriage of Edward the Fourth’s
sister with the Duke of Burgundy, and through that alliance
the increased intercourse with Flanders, led to many alterations
in social life. The comparative peace which followed the
termination of the Wars of the Roses encouraged a new style of
domestic architecture, and comfortable red brick houses succeeded
the old castles. The gardens were no longer of necessity confined
within the embattled castle walls. The houses in the new style
were not built on the tops of hills, but usually on lower lying
ground, and were surrounded by a moat. There was some little
space within the moat devoted to a garden, or a few plants were
placed in the courtyard. The prolonged peace diminished the
necessity of keeping all property within the protecting lines of
the moat, and thus the custom came in of having gardens beyond
it. With this additional space—for there was frequently more
room inside the moat than there had been within castle walls,
even if the garden were not made outside—there was more scope
for play of fancy, and before long several changes in design
came in.
One of the first innovations was the railed bed—flower-beds
EARLY TUDOR GARDENS.
“ Sure gates, sweete gardens, stately galleries
Wrought with faire pillowes and fine imageries ;
All those (O pitie!) now are turned to dust
And overgrowne with black oblivion’s rust.”
Spenser, Ruins of Time.
HEOWARDS the end of the fifteenth century fresh influences
were brought to bear on the nation, and consequently
numerous changes set in. The marriage of Edward the Fourth’s
sister with the Duke of Burgundy, and through that alliance
the increased intercourse with Flanders, led to many alterations
in social life. The comparative peace which followed the
termination of the Wars of the Roses encouraged a new style of
domestic architecture, and comfortable red brick houses succeeded
the old castles. The gardens were no longer of necessity confined
within the embattled castle walls. The houses in the new style
were not built on the tops of hills, but usually on lower lying
ground, and were surrounded by a moat. There was some little
space within the moat devoted to a garden, or a few plants were
placed in the courtyard. The prolonged peace diminished the
necessity of keeping all property within the protecting lines of
the moat, and thus the custom came in of having gardens beyond
it. With this additional space—for there was frequently more
room inside the moat than there had been within castle walls,
even if the garden were not made outside—there was more scope
for play of fancy, and before long several changes in design
came in.
One of the first innovations was the railed bed—flower-beds