DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0111
EARLY TUDOR GARDENS.
89
throughout the land. Now we have reached the years of the
Reformation, and so far as this great movement affected
gardens, we must glance at its progress. The work of the
visitation and then the suppression of the monasteries was
begun in 1534. The greater ones were first attacked, and the
lesser ones followed. The work was carried on rapidly; in the
northern district in 1536, eighty-eight monasteries were reported
on in a fortnight ;* 202 were suppressed or surrendered between
1538-40. At the time of the Dissolution there were over seven
hundred religious houses scattered all over the kingdom. We
cannot say that each of these possessed a garden, as some were
in towns, in spaces too confined, and some Orders did not devote
any of their attention to agriculture. The Benedictines and
Cistercians predominated in numbers, and they were, for the
most part, large landowners, farmers of their own land, and
skilled in horticulture. But of the gardens which surrounded
Fountains, Jervaulx, or Netley, Glastonbury, St. Albans, or
Whitby, and many another fine abbey and stately priory, nothing
remains. In some instances mention is made of the gardens
by the officers of the Crown, who carried out the visitations
and appropriated everything of value. At Oxford, they regretted
that the Austin Friars had felled all their trees, but the
Franciscans had “ good lands, woods, and a pretty garden.”
The Cistercians of Waverley were very poor at the time, and
the Abbot was granted leave “ to survey his husbandry where-
upon consisteth the wealth of his monastery.” Few traces of
old monastery gardens are left. At Westminster there was
a fine garden, celebrated for its damson trees, and a garden
by the Infirmary, where the sick monks could take the air.
Part of this remains in the garden belonging to the College, but
some portion of it was built over at the beginning of the last
century, when the new College buildings were erected. When
Elizabeth came to the throne, she sent for Abbot Feckenham, who
had been reinstated in the Abbey of Westminster during Mary’s
reign. He was planting elms in his garden when he received the
summons, and finished his work before he would attend on the
* Gasquet, Henry VIII. and Eng. Mon.
89
throughout the land. Now we have reached the years of the
Reformation, and so far as this great movement affected
gardens, we must glance at its progress. The work of the
visitation and then the suppression of the monasteries was
begun in 1534. The greater ones were first attacked, and the
lesser ones followed. The work was carried on rapidly; in the
northern district in 1536, eighty-eight monasteries were reported
on in a fortnight ;* 202 were suppressed or surrendered between
1538-40. At the time of the Dissolution there were over seven
hundred religious houses scattered all over the kingdom. We
cannot say that each of these possessed a garden, as some were
in towns, in spaces too confined, and some Orders did not devote
any of their attention to agriculture. The Benedictines and
Cistercians predominated in numbers, and they were, for the
most part, large landowners, farmers of their own land, and
skilled in horticulture. But of the gardens which surrounded
Fountains, Jervaulx, or Netley, Glastonbury, St. Albans, or
Whitby, and many another fine abbey and stately priory, nothing
remains. In some instances mention is made of the gardens
by the officers of the Crown, who carried out the visitations
and appropriated everything of value. At Oxford, they regretted
that the Austin Friars had felled all their trees, but the
Franciscans had “ good lands, woods, and a pretty garden.”
The Cistercians of Waverley were very poor at the time, and
the Abbot was granted leave “ to survey his husbandry where-
upon consisteth the wealth of his monastery.” Few traces of
old monastery gardens are left. At Westminster there was
a fine garden, celebrated for its damson trees, and a garden
by the Infirmary, where the sick monks could take the air.
Part of this remains in the garden belonging to the College, but
some portion of it was built over at the beginning of the last
century, when the new College buildings were erected. When
Elizabeth came to the throne, she sent for Abbot Feckenham, who
had been reinstated in the Abbey of Westminster during Mary’s
reign. He was planting elms in his garden when he received the
summons, and finished his work before he would attend on the
* Gasquet, Henry VIII. and Eng. Mon.