DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0148
126
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
their pleasure, to grow in sundry proportions, as in the fashion of
a cart, a peacock, or such by things as they fancy.” *
Flowers were planted in borders along the w7alks and hedges,
“thin and sparingly, lest they deceive the trees”! (i.e. rob the
trees of nourishment), but the principal receptacles for flowers
were “ open beds,” called “ open knots,” in contradistinction to
the complicated knots. The most practical gardeners did not
look with favour on the “ curiously knotted garden,” J although
all books of this period give designs for knots. Parkinson has a
page of designs merely to “ satisfy the desires ” of his readers ; he
himself considered “open knots” more suitable for the display of
flowers. There was not any room left for planting other things
between the lines of thyme, thrift, hysop, or whatever the
intricate pattern was carried out in. Sometimes the design was
simply drawn out in coloured earths, a practice of which Bacon
disapproved;—“As for the making of knots or figures with
divers-coloured earths .... they be but toys, you may see as
good sights many times in tarts.” The more simple knots were
usually bordered with box, a practice which seems to have been
introduced by French gardeners. Parkinson calls it “ French or
Dutch Box,” and recommends it “chiefly and above all other
herbs,” as it was not so liable to overgrow the beds and distort
the pattern, as “Thrift, Germander, Marjerome, Savorie,” &c.,
and did not suffer so much from “ the frosts and snows in
winter,” or the “drought in summer.” Lavender cotton
(Santolina chamcecyparissus), a new importation, was also used,
and “the rarity and novelty of this herb being for the most
part but in the gardens of great persons, doth cause it to be
of greater regard.” §
If herbs or box were not used for bordering, “ dead material ”
was the alternative, such as lead, either plain or “ cut out
like unto the battlements of a church,” or oak boards, or
tiles, or the shank-bones of sheep, “ stuck in the ground, the
small end downwards, which will become white, and prettily
grace out the ground.” Another plan was to use “ round
* Barnaby Googe’s Husbandry, 1578. Translation of Conrad, of Heresbach.
f Bacon. f Love s Labour’s Lost, act i. scene 1. § Parkinson.
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
their pleasure, to grow in sundry proportions, as in the fashion of
a cart, a peacock, or such by things as they fancy.” *
Flowers were planted in borders along the w7alks and hedges,
“thin and sparingly, lest they deceive the trees”! (i.e. rob the
trees of nourishment), but the principal receptacles for flowers
were “ open beds,” called “ open knots,” in contradistinction to
the complicated knots. The most practical gardeners did not
look with favour on the “ curiously knotted garden,” J although
all books of this period give designs for knots. Parkinson has a
page of designs merely to “ satisfy the desires ” of his readers ; he
himself considered “open knots” more suitable for the display of
flowers. There was not any room left for planting other things
between the lines of thyme, thrift, hysop, or whatever the
intricate pattern was carried out in. Sometimes the design was
simply drawn out in coloured earths, a practice of which Bacon
disapproved;—“As for the making of knots or figures with
divers-coloured earths .... they be but toys, you may see as
good sights many times in tarts.” The more simple knots were
usually bordered with box, a practice which seems to have been
introduced by French gardeners. Parkinson calls it “ French or
Dutch Box,” and recommends it “chiefly and above all other
herbs,” as it was not so liable to overgrow the beds and distort
the pattern, as “Thrift, Germander, Marjerome, Savorie,” &c.,
and did not suffer so much from “ the frosts and snows in
winter,” or the “drought in summer.” Lavender cotton
(Santolina chamcecyparissus), a new importation, was also used,
and “the rarity and novelty of this herb being for the most
part but in the gardens of great persons, doth cause it to be
of greater regard.” §
If herbs or box were not used for bordering, “ dead material ”
was the alternative, such as lead, either plain or “ cut out
like unto the battlements of a church,” or oak boards, or
tiles, or the shank-bones of sheep, “ stuck in the ground, the
small end downwards, which will become white, and prettily
grace out the ground.” Another plan was to use “ round
* Barnaby Googe’s Husbandry, 1578. Translation of Conrad, of Heresbach.
f Bacon. f Love s Labour’s Lost, act i. scene 1. § Parkinson.