DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0168
116 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND.
from experience, being himself an old man, and says that the
orchard “takes away the tediousnesse and heavie load of three
or four score years.” What a truly magical power must an
Elizabethan orchard have possessed! Such an introduction
makes one keen to leave the kitchen-garden, and traverse again
the flower-garden, on the other side of which we should probably
find the orchard. It was thoughtfully put on the north-east when
it was possible, that the fruit trees might help to shelter the more
tender plants of the flower-garden, and some tall forest trees,
“Walnuts, Elms, Oaks or Ashes,” were planted at a good distance
beyond, to shelter but not overshadow the orchard. A garden
much on this plan is that of Castle Bromwich laid out about the
year 1585. The flower-garden is in front of the house, and on
either side lie the fruit and kitchen-gardens concealed from view
by high red brick walls, now thickly covered with creepers. These
can be seen in the old plan or bird’s-eye view, and also in the
picture of the garden as it now is, which is taken in the centre
or flower-garden, looking towards the wall which shuts out the
kitchen-garden. From the central garden a flight of stone steps
descend to a lower level, laid out in shrubberies intersected by
grass walks and wonderful old cut hedges of holly, yew, box,
hornbeam and privet and an archery ground or raised glade of
green turf one hundred and eighty yards long. The orchard lies
to the south-west of the upper or central garden, from which it is
separated, as is the kitchen-garden, by a high brick wall.
The cost of building a wall all round the fruit-garden was
so great as “ the extent of an orchard was much larger than
that of a garden, and it would require more cost, which every-
one cannot undergo,” so instead of brick, mud walls, wooden
palings, or a quickset hedge were substituted. But Parkinson
recommends a wall of brick or stone, in spite of the expense,
“ as the gaining of ground and profit of the fruit trees planted
there against, will in short time recompense that charge.” “ On
the south wall your tenderest and earliest fruits, as Apricocks,
Peaches, Nectarins, and May or early cherries, should be set on
the east and north, and on the west, plums and quinces, spread
upon and fastened to the walls by the help of tacks and other
means to have the benefit of the immediate reflexe of the
from experience, being himself an old man, and says that the
orchard “takes away the tediousnesse and heavie load of three
or four score years.” What a truly magical power must an
Elizabethan orchard have possessed! Such an introduction
makes one keen to leave the kitchen-garden, and traverse again
the flower-garden, on the other side of which we should probably
find the orchard. It was thoughtfully put on the north-east when
it was possible, that the fruit trees might help to shelter the more
tender plants of the flower-garden, and some tall forest trees,
“Walnuts, Elms, Oaks or Ashes,” were planted at a good distance
beyond, to shelter but not overshadow the orchard. A garden
much on this plan is that of Castle Bromwich laid out about the
year 1585. The flower-garden is in front of the house, and on
either side lie the fruit and kitchen-gardens concealed from view
by high red brick walls, now thickly covered with creepers. These
can be seen in the old plan or bird’s-eye view, and also in the
picture of the garden as it now is, which is taken in the centre
or flower-garden, looking towards the wall which shuts out the
kitchen-garden. From the central garden a flight of stone steps
descend to a lower level, laid out in shrubberies intersected by
grass walks and wonderful old cut hedges of holly, yew, box,
hornbeam and privet and an archery ground or raised glade of
green turf one hundred and eighty yards long. The orchard lies
to the south-west of the upper or central garden, from which it is
separated, as is the kitchen-garden, by a high brick wall.
The cost of building a wall all round the fruit-garden was
so great as “ the extent of an orchard was much larger than
that of a garden, and it would require more cost, which every-
one cannot undergo,” so instead of brick, mud walls, wooden
palings, or a quickset hedge were substituted. But Parkinson
recommends a wall of brick or stone, in spite of the expense,
“ as the gaining of ground and profit of the fruit trees planted
there against, will in short time recompense that charge.” “ On
the south wall your tenderest and earliest fruits, as Apricocks,
Peaches, Nectarins, and May or early cherries, should be set on
the east and north, and on the west, plums and quinces, spread
upon and fastened to the walls by the help of tacks and other
means to have the benefit of the immediate reflexe of the