28 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



but only a pleasant smell.' In the kitchen garden were 

 seventy-two fruit trees and one lime tree. Lastly, before 

 the palace, was a neat handsome bowling-green, surrounded 

 with a balustrade of freestone." Another writer, describing 

 Nonsuch when in perfection, says, " In the pleasure and 

 artificial gardens are many columns and pyramids of mar- 

 ble, two fountains that spout water, one round and the 

 other like a pyramid, upon which are perched small birds 

 that stream water out of their bills. There is besides 

 another pyramid of marble full of concealed pipes, which 

 spirt upon all who come within their reach." 



In the reign of Elizabeth " trim gardens" seem to have 

 been in high favor. Hatfield was one of the great estates 

 of that period, and its gardens were described as " surround- 

 ed by a piece of water, with boats rowing through alleys oj 

 well cut trees, and labarynths made with great labor. 

 There are jets d'eau, and a summer house, with many 

 pleasant and fair fish ponds." The Gardener's Laharynth, 

 a work intended to direct the taste of that day (1571), 

 gives plates of "knotts and mazes curiously handled for 

 the beautifying of gardens.'"' 



During the reign of James I. many fine country seats 

 were either created or improved. Both the descriptions 

 and the engravings of gardens of that period agree in pla- 

 cing before us grounds surrounded by high walls, divided 

 into regular squares, compartments, or parterres, and orna- 

 mented with all kinds of trained and clipped trees, inter- 

 spersed with statues — and, in the finest examples, not 

 omitting that delightful puzzle of the time a " labarynth." 



Lord Bacon attempted to reform the national taste 

 during this reign, but apparently with little immediate 

 success. He wished still to retain shorn trees and hedges, 



