CHAPTER III. 



HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE SKETCH OF THE 

 ENGLISH GARDEN. 



"The Earth is the garden of Nature, and each fruitful country a 

 Paradise." — Sir Thomas Browne. 



In the last chapter 1 observed that in dealing with 

 our second point — the ornamental treatment that 

 is fit for a o-arden — we should be brougrht into con- 



o c> 



tact with the good and bad points of both the old 

 and new systems of gardening. Hence the following 

 discursus upon the historic English garden, which 

 will, however, be as short as it can well be made, 

 not only because the writer has no desire to wander 

 on a far errand when his interest lies near home, but 

 also because an essay, such as this, is ever bound to 

 be an inconclusive affair ; and 'twere a pity to lay a 

 heavy burden upon a light horse ! 



At the outset of this section of our enquiry it is 

 well to realise that there is little known about the 

 garden of earlier date than the middle of the sixteenth 

 centur}-. Our knowledge of the mediaeval garden is 

 only to be acquired piecemeal, out of casual references 

 in old chronicles, and stray pictures in illuminated 



