'THE CURIOUS KNOTTED GARDEN" 39 



break of more than a thousand years, went back to 

 classical models, as interpreted by the Italian school 

 of the time. Thus the gardens of the Palace of 

 Nonesuch (1529) and Theobald's (1560) showed 

 all the new ideas : flower-beds edged with low trel- 

 lises, topiary work of cut box and yew, whereby the 

 natural growth of the trees was trained into figures 

 of birds and animals and especially of peacocks; 

 while here and there mounts were thrown up against 

 the orchard or garden wall, ascended by flights of 

 steps and crowned with arbors, while sometimes the 

 view obtained in this manner was deemed insuffi- 

 cient and trellised galleries extended the whole 

 length of the garden. In 1573 the gardens of Kenil- 

 worth, which Shakespeare almost certainly /isited, 

 had a terrace walk twelve feet in width and raised 

 ten feet above the garden, terminating at either end 

 in arbors redolent with sweetbrier and flowers. Be- 

 neath these again was a garden of an acre or more 

 in size divided into four quarters by sanded walks 

 and having in the center of each plot an obelisk of 

 red porphyry with a ball at the top. These were 

 planted with apple, pear and cherry while in the 

 center was a fountain of white marble." 





