CHAPTER IX. 



SEl 'ENTEENTH CENTUR \ '. 



" . . . . retired leisure 

 That in trim gardens takes his pleasure." 



M ILTOV. 



" That is the walk, and this the arbour ; 

 That is the garden, this the grove." 



George Herbert. 



'T^HE period now to be surveyed falls naturally into three 

 divisions. The first, the reign of Charles I. ; the second, 

 the Commonwealth ; the third, the Restoration. The develop- 

 ment of gardening in each of these has its own distinctive 

 character. The current of slow progress in horticulture runs on 

 smoothly, but garden design does not alter much until the third 

 portion of the time. During the Commonwealth, there was a 

 movement towards the improvement of orchards and market 

 gardens, and the reign of Charles II. witnessed a great revival 

 in gardening in all its branches. The early part is merely a 

 continuation of the gardening in the time of James I. ; the 

 men whose works have already been quoted were still alive — 

 Parkinson, Johnson, and the Tradescants — and they form a link 

 with the Elizabethan age. Sir William Temple and John 

 Evelyn, whose names are so intimately connected with the 

 garden history of the Restoration, in like manner connect that 

 period with the brilliant days of gardening at the close of the 

 seventeenth century. 



Each succeeding generation of gardeners had a very poor 

 opinion of the capabilities of their predecessors, while they 

 thought the excellence of their own gardens could hardly be 

 surpassed. Holinshed maintained that there never were such 



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