DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16633#0136
Tl6
History of Garden Art
them plain,, that we have the best walks of gravell in the world, France having none, nor Italy; and our
green of our bowling allies is better than any they have. So our business here being ayre, this is the best
way,, only with a little mixture of statues, or pots, which may be handsome, and so filled with another pot
of such or such a flower or greene as the season of the year will bear. And then for flowers, they are best
seen in a little plat by themselves; besides, their borders spoil the walks of another garden: and then
for fruit, the best way is to have walls built circularly one within another, to the South, on purpose for
fruit, and leave the walking garden only for that use.
This increasing hostility to flowers was sometimes felt in France, but was not so
evident because of the plentiful water, statues and other sculpture. The English garden,
with its love for wide convenient paths, and very small provision of sculptures, must at
that time have looked empty and dull. As a fact, good taste was turning the other way;
and in the year 1665 a violent protest was raised. Rea writes in his garden book Ceres,
Flora, and Pomona: "A choice collection of living Beauties, rare Plants, Flowers and Fruits,
are indeed the wealth, glory, and delight of a Garden," and he goes on to say that the
new plan of gravel walks and close-cut lawns is only suitable for town houses, though
leading features at many a stately country seat whence garden flowers, "those wonders of
Nature, the fairest ornaments ever discovered for making a place beautiful," are banished.
He adds a hope that this "new-fangled ugly fashion" will disappear together with many
other alterations.
This protest against the hostility to flowers was repeated twelve years later by the
much-read author, John Worlidge. But those two men of understanding, Pepys and May,
had happened on the very centre-point of the requirements of an English garden, when
they spoke of wide paths, seats to rest on, and objects to make for on a walk, because here
we have the essentially English delight in active exercise in the open country. And so
Rea's objection to wide paths was not endorsed by Worlidge himself, who thought
that it was by no means the least part of the pleasure given by a garden to go for
a walk in it with friends or acquaintances; or to go alone and so get refreshed,
free from the cares of the world and society which are often burdensome; then if one
were tired, or if there were more great heat or rain, one could take a rest under a fine
tree or in a covered arbour before again enjoying the open air.
Of this sort of garden to stroll in, no Southerner or even Frenchman had ever
dreamed. For them the open parterre was to be looked at from above, or enjoyed at
leisure when it was cool; in the sunny squares people preferred to be carried, or to drive
in little carriages along the broad paths into the shady boskets, and even there they did
not walk. Quite peculiar to England, both then and now, are the smooth garden walks
of grass. The unrivalled beauty of the lawns, which England owes to a damp climate,
produced a reaction in France in favour of the grass parterre a. Vanglaise. In England
such a parterre was of course often an unbroken lawn, with flowers only on the borders;
or it might be, as was the fashion at the end of the century, adorned with vases, statues
and small green trees. It was in England too that were first made with thick short grass
the wide and sometimes very long alleys for playing bowls. It is evident how little the other
countries were likely to have lawns of this kind when one sees the odd meaning of the
word "bowling-green" as used in French garden language. It is possible that they did
not know that "boulingrin" was an English word at all; it was understood at the date
of the Theorie et Pratique to mean a sunk piece of grass, which formed the centre of a
bosket and often had a fountain on it. So far the lawn had only been regarded as attractive
History of Garden Art
them plain,, that we have the best walks of gravell in the world, France having none, nor Italy; and our
green of our bowling allies is better than any they have. So our business here being ayre, this is the best
way,, only with a little mixture of statues, or pots, which may be handsome, and so filled with another pot
of such or such a flower or greene as the season of the year will bear. And then for flowers, they are best
seen in a little plat by themselves; besides, their borders spoil the walks of another garden: and then
for fruit, the best way is to have walls built circularly one within another, to the South, on purpose for
fruit, and leave the walking garden only for that use.
This increasing hostility to flowers was sometimes felt in France, but was not so
evident because of the plentiful water, statues and other sculpture. The English garden,
with its love for wide convenient paths, and very small provision of sculptures, must at
that time have looked empty and dull. As a fact, good taste was turning the other way;
and in the year 1665 a violent protest was raised. Rea writes in his garden book Ceres,
Flora, and Pomona: "A choice collection of living Beauties, rare Plants, Flowers and Fruits,
are indeed the wealth, glory, and delight of a Garden," and he goes on to say that the
new plan of gravel walks and close-cut lawns is only suitable for town houses, though
leading features at many a stately country seat whence garden flowers, "those wonders of
Nature, the fairest ornaments ever discovered for making a place beautiful," are banished.
He adds a hope that this "new-fangled ugly fashion" will disappear together with many
other alterations.
This protest against the hostility to flowers was repeated twelve years later by the
much-read author, John Worlidge. But those two men of understanding, Pepys and May,
had happened on the very centre-point of the requirements of an English garden, when
they spoke of wide paths, seats to rest on, and objects to make for on a walk, because here
we have the essentially English delight in active exercise in the open country. And so
Rea's objection to wide paths was not endorsed by Worlidge himself, who thought
that it was by no means the least part of the pleasure given by a garden to go for
a walk in it with friends or acquaintances; or to go alone and so get refreshed,
free from the cares of the world and society which are often burdensome; then if one
were tired, or if there were more great heat or rain, one could take a rest under a fine
tree or in a covered arbour before again enjoying the open air.
Of this sort of garden to stroll in, no Southerner or even Frenchman had ever
dreamed. For them the open parterre was to be looked at from above, or enjoyed at
leisure when it was cool; in the sunny squares people preferred to be carried, or to drive
in little carriages along the broad paths into the shady boskets, and even there they did
not walk. Quite peculiar to England, both then and now, are the smooth garden walks
of grass. The unrivalled beauty of the lawns, which England owes to a damp climate,
produced a reaction in France in favour of the grass parterre a. Vanglaise. In England
such a parterre was of course often an unbroken lawn, with flowers only on the borders;
or it might be, as was the fashion at the end of the century, adorned with vases, statues
and small green trees. It was in England too that were first made with thick short grass
the wide and sometimes very long alleys for playing bowls. It is evident how little the other
countries were likely to have lawns of this kind when one sees the odd meaning of the
word "bowling-green" as used in French garden language. It is possible that they did
not know that "boulingrin" was an English word at all; it was understood at the date
of the Theorie et Pratique to mean a sunk piece of grass, which formed the centre of a
bosket and often had a fountain on it. So far the lawn had only been regarded as attractive