DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16633#0360
340
History of Garden Art
Hellenistic cities developed in a modern spirit; they took over their inheritance from
Greece and then extended it to a size and magnificence truly oriental. In Rome the
emperors were careful that round the narrow crowded dwellings of the townsfolk free
spaces for recreation should be provided in a belt of gardens and beautiful grounds. The
development of the public garden took a different direction in the Middle Ages. No
doubt the burghers found open walks in the gardens of the guilds before the town gates,
but they did not need them much, as the pasture-lands were so near at hand. Afterwards,
in the days of the Italian Renaissance, the fine private gardens of the gentlefolk came
into existence, and it became a point of honour to open them to the public. Travellers
from northern countries, where the feeling of the Renaissance was not so fully active among
the townsfolk as it was in Italy, and the love of private possession was much stronger,
recognised this with surprise, noting in Rome, above all other places, what they considered
the liberality and magnanimity of the rich. It is seldom indeed that we hear of hospitality
being extended to all comers in the patrician gardens of the great towns of the North, as
it was in the Roman gardens of Montaigne's day. However, northern princes became more
and more imbued with the new spirit in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. When-
ever possible the smaller princes made their residence in garden cities, and most of the
parks were thrown open to all their subjects. The people were not, however, at home there—
not the real masters. True, there were not many places where an inscription was put on the
front gate threatening common people with a cudgelling if they presumed to sit down on
a seat where some noble visitor wished to sit; but this was actually done at the entrance to
the Herrenhausen garden; and particular gardens were often closed at the owner's pleasure;
in Paris, for example, places which the people had supposed to be theirs by right were
suddenly closed to them by some caprice of the actual owner. Thus, in 1781, the Due de
Chartres closed the Palais Royal Garden, which had been open ever since it was founded
by Richelieu. In 1650 Sauval writes of the Luxembourg Garden, "It is often open and
often closed, just as it may please the prince who is living at the castle." The Duchesse
de Berri had all the doors but one blocked up, so that she might be undisturbed at her
gay parties.
In England Queen Caroline, intelligent though she was, held the views of the despotic
little court which she came from, and had the fancy to shut up Kensington Gardens. She
inquired of Walpole, who was at that time her Minister, what it would cost, to which he
gave the significant reply, "Only three crowns." In London the great parks were the
property of the Crown, though in the eighteenth century they were completely given up
to the use of the people. Queen Caroline took a lively interest m these parks, which crossed
the interior of London like a broad green belt, and particularly in Kensington Gardens;
the fine avenues and the great basin in the middle are due to her. This garden never quite
lost its formal character, whereas in the reign of George II. Hyde Park was converted into
a picturesque garden, with the artificial long lake that is known as the Serpentine.
Both in London and in Paris parks of this kind were an indispensable theatre for
the world of fashion and wit, as it existed in the eighteenth century. But the people also
gained from the parks, particularly in England, for they served as large club-rooms, and
provided open spaces suitable for public meetings. During the nineteenth century it was
the citizen class which really carried out the traditions of the parks.
In France the intellectuals were delighted to meet one another m the garden of the
History of Garden Art
Hellenistic cities developed in a modern spirit; they took over their inheritance from
Greece and then extended it to a size and magnificence truly oriental. In Rome the
emperors were careful that round the narrow crowded dwellings of the townsfolk free
spaces for recreation should be provided in a belt of gardens and beautiful grounds. The
development of the public garden took a different direction in the Middle Ages. No
doubt the burghers found open walks in the gardens of the guilds before the town gates,
but they did not need them much, as the pasture-lands were so near at hand. Afterwards,
in the days of the Italian Renaissance, the fine private gardens of the gentlefolk came
into existence, and it became a point of honour to open them to the public. Travellers
from northern countries, where the feeling of the Renaissance was not so fully active among
the townsfolk as it was in Italy, and the love of private possession was much stronger,
recognised this with surprise, noting in Rome, above all other places, what they considered
the liberality and magnanimity of the rich. It is seldom indeed that we hear of hospitality
being extended to all comers in the patrician gardens of the great towns of the North, as
it was in the Roman gardens of Montaigne's day. However, northern princes became more
and more imbued with the new spirit in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. When-
ever possible the smaller princes made their residence in garden cities, and most of the
parks were thrown open to all their subjects. The people were not, however, at home there—
not the real masters. True, there were not many places where an inscription was put on the
front gate threatening common people with a cudgelling if they presumed to sit down on
a seat where some noble visitor wished to sit; but this was actually done at the entrance to
the Herrenhausen garden; and particular gardens were often closed at the owner's pleasure;
in Paris, for example, places which the people had supposed to be theirs by right were
suddenly closed to them by some caprice of the actual owner. Thus, in 1781, the Due de
Chartres closed the Palais Royal Garden, which had been open ever since it was founded
by Richelieu. In 1650 Sauval writes of the Luxembourg Garden, "It is often open and
often closed, just as it may please the prince who is living at the castle." The Duchesse
de Berri had all the doors but one blocked up, so that she might be undisturbed at her
gay parties.
In England Queen Caroline, intelligent though she was, held the views of the despotic
little court which she came from, and had the fancy to shut up Kensington Gardens. She
inquired of Walpole, who was at that time her Minister, what it would cost, to which he
gave the significant reply, "Only three crowns." In London the great parks were the
property of the Crown, though in the eighteenth century they were completely given up
to the use of the people. Queen Caroline took a lively interest m these parks, which crossed
the interior of London like a broad green belt, and particularly in Kensington Gardens;
the fine avenues and the great basin in the middle are due to her. This garden never quite
lost its formal character, whereas in the reign of George II. Hyde Park was converted into
a picturesque garden, with the artificial long lake that is known as the Serpentine.
Both in London and in Paris parks of this kind were an indispensable theatre for
the world of fashion and wit, as it existed in the eighteenth century. But the people also
gained from the parks, particularly in England, for they served as large club-rooms, and
provided open spaces suitable for public meetings. During the nineteenth century it was
the citizen class which really carried out the traditions of the parks.
In France the intellectuals were delighted to meet one another m the garden of the