DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0207
178
History of Garden Art
fruit and kitchen gardens. It is not unlikely that the poet who wrote Meier Helmbrecht
in the thirteenth century, calling himself "Wernher the Gardener/' was one of these
men from Ranshof. A pleasing picture—the monks are teachers of other men, and also
cultivate their own estates themselves.
There were many of these properties cultivated indirectly by the monks, and lying
outside the walls; their own vineyards and their own fruit-gardens were also far too
large to be kept within the precincts. King John of England made a present to Llanthony
Abbey of twelve acres of fruit-garden, and this shows how the fashion had spread. Any
vineyard in any country—and in the Middle Ages vine-culture extended far into the
North of England and also to East Prussia—belonged indubitably to the estate of the
monastery. At Cologne there is still to be found, amid the whirl and bustle of the great
city, one quiet vineyard near St. Mauritius; and from its deep green seclusion there
seems to come a living breath of the Middle Ages.
There is a plan of the cloisters at Canterbury (Fig. 125) which dates from the year
1165, and fruit-gardens and vineyards are shown outside the walls. This plan was prob-
ably made to explain the water arrangements, perhaps because repairs were needed: the
thick black lines indicate this, running across the picture, which is partly a ground-plan
and partly a bird's-eye view. The water system is conducted among the courts and gardens
very liberally, for it was urgently required for plants. In one court beside the east wall
there is a very large basin marked "Piscina"; it was intended for fish-breeding, a
very important business in English monasteries. Then the churchyard for the laity, to the
north but also inside the precincts, had its own special well. The infirmary looks out on
a large court that contains the "Herbarium"; it is cut across the middle by a covered
walk or pergola, and has its water-arrangement on one side, and on its other side the
monks' own burying-ground. This plan is fragmentary, and, as we said, was made for
business reasons. No doubt the close, with so many different divisions in it, will have
contained other gardens than those marked on the plan; and we see, lightly sketched in,
a vineyard and a fruit-garden, and two towers in a field outside the walls, perhaps meant
for watch-towers.
A little earlier the Abbey of Clairvaux is described by a contemporary of St. Bernard.
"Behind the abbey, and within the wall of the cloister, there is a wide level ground; here
there is an orchard, with a great many different fruit-trees, quite like a small wood. It
is close to the infirmary, and is very comforting to the brothers, providing a wide
promenade for those who want to walk, and a pleasant resting-place for those who prefer
to rest. Where the orchard leaves off, the garden begins, divided into several beds, or
(still better) cut up by little canals, which, though standing water, do actually flow more or
less. . . . The water fulfils the double purpose of nourishing the fish and watering the
vegetables." This picture of a French monastery garden at the beginning of the twelfth
century, with canals round it, is an early indication of the effect that the Renaissance will
have on the gardens of France.
Very like this is William of Malmesbury's picture of Thorney Abbey, near Peter-
borough, situated in a marshy neighbourhood. He especially praises the tree-garden for
being "level as the sea," the smooth stems of the fruit-trees, that stretch up toward
the stars, and the luxuriant growths everywhere. "There is competition between nature
and art, and what one fails in the other produces."
History of Garden Art
fruit and kitchen gardens. It is not unlikely that the poet who wrote Meier Helmbrecht
in the thirteenth century, calling himself "Wernher the Gardener/' was one of these
men from Ranshof. A pleasing picture—the monks are teachers of other men, and also
cultivate their own estates themselves.
There were many of these properties cultivated indirectly by the monks, and lying
outside the walls; their own vineyards and their own fruit-gardens were also far too
large to be kept within the precincts. King John of England made a present to Llanthony
Abbey of twelve acres of fruit-garden, and this shows how the fashion had spread. Any
vineyard in any country—and in the Middle Ages vine-culture extended far into the
North of England and also to East Prussia—belonged indubitably to the estate of the
monastery. At Cologne there is still to be found, amid the whirl and bustle of the great
city, one quiet vineyard near St. Mauritius; and from its deep green seclusion there
seems to come a living breath of the Middle Ages.
There is a plan of the cloisters at Canterbury (Fig. 125) which dates from the year
1165, and fruit-gardens and vineyards are shown outside the walls. This plan was prob-
ably made to explain the water arrangements, perhaps because repairs were needed: the
thick black lines indicate this, running across the picture, which is partly a ground-plan
and partly a bird's-eye view. The water system is conducted among the courts and gardens
very liberally, for it was urgently required for plants. In one court beside the east wall
there is a very large basin marked "Piscina"; it was intended for fish-breeding, a
very important business in English monasteries. Then the churchyard for the laity, to the
north but also inside the precincts, had its own special well. The infirmary looks out on
a large court that contains the "Herbarium"; it is cut across the middle by a covered
walk or pergola, and has its water-arrangement on one side, and on its other side the
monks' own burying-ground. This plan is fragmentary, and, as we said, was made for
business reasons. No doubt the close, with so many different divisions in it, will have
contained other gardens than those marked on the plan; and we see, lightly sketched in,
a vineyard and a fruit-garden, and two towers in a field outside the walls, perhaps meant
for watch-towers.
A little earlier the Abbey of Clairvaux is described by a contemporary of St. Bernard.
"Behind the abbey, and within the wall of the cloister, there is a wide level ground; here
there is an orchard, with a great many different fruit-trees, quite like a small wood. It
is close to the infirmary, and is very comforting to the brothers, providing a wide
promenade for those who want to walk, and a pleasant resting-place for those who prefer
to rest. Where the orchard leaves off, the garden begins, divided into several beds, or
(still better) cut up by little canals, which, though standing water, do actually flow more or
less. . . . The water fulfils the double purpose of nourishing the fish and watering the
vegetables." This picture of a French monastery garden at the beginning of the twelfth
century, with canals round it, is an early indication of the effect that the Renaissance will
have on the gardens of France.
Very like this is William of Malmesbury's picture of Thorney Abbey, near Peter-
borough, situated in a marshy neighbourhood. He especially praises the tree-garden for
being "level as the sea," the smooth stems of the fruit-trees, that stretch up toward
the stars, and the luxuriant growths everywhere. "There is competition between nature
and art, and what one fails in the other produces."