342 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



Thus much upon Italian gardens will serve as prelude to the 

 Elizabethan garden, which, like the literature of the day, was 

 cosmopolitan and eclectic — a happy fusion of the early Tudor 

 garden with the styles of Italy and France, borrowing from the 

 former its terraces and fountains, and from the latter its parterres, 

 alleys, berceaux and labyrinths. Its design is summed up in 

 the famous Essay of Bacon, the crown and flower of garden 

 literature, which contains the elements of all styles and schools — 

 of the architect's, the painter's, the natural and wild garden alike. 



One typical Elizabethan garden was Theobalds, the garden 

 of Lord Treasurer Burleigh (of which there is a plan by Thorpe 

 in the Soane Museum), described by Mandelslo in 1640 as a large 

 square, with its walls covered with Phillyrea, a jet d'eau in the 

 centre, a parterre, with walks planted on the sides with espaliers, 

 and others ' arched over ' : a mount called the Mount of Venus 

 is in the midst of a labyrinth or maize. The walks ' arched over ' 

 are due to the art of the 'pleacher,' a word derived from the 

 French 'plesser' to weave (from the woven or plaited boughs), 

 and of constant occurrence in Shakespeare. 



Other gardens were Hatfield described by Hentzner,^ Holland 

 House, Kensington, with much of its original plan still existing ; 

 and the Earl of Pembroke's garden at Wilton (before the days of 

 the Palladian Bridge), here shown as originally designed by Isaac 

 de Caus, son of the old Solomon de Caus, from whom we have the 

 plan and description of the Schloss garden at Heidelberg.^ 



The euphuistic praise of Wilton by John Taylor, the ' Water 



W. S. Rose's • Letters from the North of Italy.' 



Sir R. C. Hoare's 'Classical Tour.' 



Joseph Forsyth's 'Remarks on Italy,' 1802. 



G. L. Meason's ' Landscape Architecture of Italy,' 1828. 



R. Duppa's 'Observations and Opinions on the Continent.' 



Wood's ' Letters of an Architect,' 1828. 



Taine's 'Voyage en Italic ' and ' Philosophic de 1' Art.' 



Leader Scott's ' Ruccellai Gardens.' 



Charles A. Piatt's ' Italian Gardens,' 1894. 



^ ante p. 73. 



^ * Hortus Palatinus Heidelbergae exstructus,' 1620 (translated in Loudon). 



