DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0133
ELIZABETHAN FLOWER GARDEN.
Ill
building, while the patterns in the beds and mazes harmonized
with the details of the architecture. The peculiar geometric
tracery which surmounted so many Elizabethan houses, found
its counterpart in the designs of the flower-beds. “The
form that men like in general is a square,” * and this shape
was chosen in preference to “an orbicular, a triangle, or an
oblong, because it doth best agree with a man’s dwelling.” t
This square garden was usuallj^ enclosed by a high brick or
stone wall. “ He hath a garden circummured with brick.” J
The picture which does duty both in Thomas Hill’s Gardener's
Labyrinth, and in his Art of Gardening, show's a square
garden with a paling round it. Another illustration, which
appears three times in the Gardener's Labyrinth, gives a
brick wall; while, in a third, the garden is enclosed by a
hedge. The custom of covering the walls with rosemary was
“exceedingly common in England.” § At Hampton Court
rosemary was “so planted and nailed to the walls as to cover
them entirely.” Gerard|| and Parkinson both refer to the
custom of planting against brick walls. In the North of
England, according to Lawson, the garden-walls were made
of “ drie earthe,” and it was usual to plant “thereon wall-
flowers and divers sweet-smelling plants.”
Bacon has a more magnificent plan :—“ The garden is best to
be square, encompassed on all four sides with a stately arched
hedge. The arches to be upon pillars of carpenter's work, of
some ten foot high, and six foot broad, and the spaces between
of the same dimension with the breadth of the arch.” This
“fair hedge” of Bacon’s ideal garden was to be raised
upon a bank, set with flowers, and little turrets above the
arches, with a space to receive “ a cage of birds ” ;—“and
over every space between the arches, some other little figure,
with broad plates of round coloured glass, gilt, for the sun to
play upon.” It is not likely that such fantastical ornaments
to a hedge were usual, though it reminds one of the arched
* Lawson, New Orchard, 1618. j- Parkinson.
J Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, act iv. scene i.
§ Hentzner’s Travels. 1598.
|| Gerard is spelt Gerarde on the engraved title of his herbal, but he signs
the Preface without the e.
Ill
building, while the patterns in the beds and mazes harmonized
with the details of the architecture. The peculiar geometric
tracery which surmounted so many Elizabethan houses, found
its counterpart in the designs of the flower-beds. “The
form that men like in general is a square,” * and this shape
was chosen in preference to “an orbicular, a triangle, or an
oblong, because it doth best agree with a man’s dwelling.” t
This square garden was usuallj^ enclosed by a high brick or
stone wall. “ He hath a garden circummured with brick.” J
The picture which does duty both in Thomas Hill’s Gardener's
Labyrinth, and in his Art of Gardening, show's a square
garden with a paling round it. Another illustration, which
appears three times in the Gardener's Labyrinth, gives a
brick wall; while, in a third, the garden is enclosed by a
hedge. The custom of covering the walls with rosemary was
“exceedingly common in England.” § At Hampton Court
rosemary was “so planted and nailed to the walls as to cover
them entirely.” Gerard|| and Parkinson both refer to the
custom of planting against brick walls. In the North of
England, according to Lawson, the garden-walls were made
of “ drie earthe,” and it was usual to plant “thereon wall-
flowers and divers sweet-smelling plants.”
Bacon has a more magnificent plan :—“ The garden is best to
be square, encompassed on all four sides with a stately arched
hedge. The arches to be upon pillars of carpenter's work, of
some ten foot high, and six foot broad, and the spaces between
of the same dimension with the breadth of the arch.” This
“fair hedge” of Bacon’s ideal garden was to be raised
upon a bank, set with flowers, and little turrets above the
arches, with a space to receive “ a cage of birds ” ;—“and
over every space between the arches, some other little figure,
with broad plates of round coloured glass, gilt, for the sun to
play upon.” It is not likely that such fantastical ornaments
to a hedge were usual, though it reminds one of the arched
* Lawson, New Orchard, 1618. j- Parkinson.
J Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, act iv. scene i.
§ Hentzner’s Travels. 1598.
|| Gerard is spelt Gerarde on the engraved title of his herbal, but he signs
the Preface without the e.