HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE. 89 



dwarf trees on the other, shews very fine ; and so 

 do from thence his yew hedges with trees of the 

 same at equal distance, kept in pretty shapes with 

 tonsure. His flowers and fruits are of the best, for 

 the advantage of which two parallel walls, about 

 fourteen feet high, were now raised and almost 

 finished," &c. 



Sir Sfcp/icn /^ar'j- garden at Chiswick, " excels for 

 a fair gravel walk betwixt two yew hedges, with 

 rounds and spires of the same, all under smooth 

 tonsure. At the far end of this garden are two 

 myrtle hedges that cross the garden. The other 

 gardens are full of tlowers and salleting, and the 

 walls well clad." 



Wimbledon House, which was rebuilt by Sir 

 Thomas Cecil in 1588, and surveyed by order of 

 Parliament in 1649, was celebrated for its trees, 

 gardens, and shrubs. In the several gardens, which 

 consisted of mazes, wildernesses, knots, alleys, &c., 

 are mentioned a great variety of fruit trees and 

 shrubs, particularly a " faire bay tree," valued at 

 ^i ; and "one very faire tree called the Irish 

 arbutis, very lovely to look upon and worth 

 £\, I OS." (Lysons, I., 397.) 



The gardens at Sherborne Castle were laid out 

 by Sir Walter Raleigh. Coker, in his " Survey of 

 Dorsetshire," written in the time of James I., says 

 that Sir Walter built in the park adjoining the old 

 Castle, " a most fine house which hee beautified with 

 orchardes, (gardens, and crroves of much varietie and 

 great delight ; soe that whether that you consider 



