MONASTIC GARDENS 47 



Augustine and to his disciples were due the revival 

 of horticulture and the introduction of several new 

 vegetables and fruits. On the continent the monks 

 are said to have incorporated fragments of the Roman 

 villas into their monasteries, and to have restored the 

 former gardens. But in England there seems to have 

 been very slight connection if any between the classic 

 and conventual grounds. Although during the two 

 centuries succeeding the advent of the saint, garden- 

 ing certainly flourished within the newly founded 

 monasteries, little is known except the mere fact of 

 its existence. 



In the convents for women, too, planned like the con- Nunnery 



gardens . 



ventual establishments for men, there were gardens. Of 

 these, one of the earliest was constructed by St. Rade- 

 gonde, wife of Clothair I, at Poitiers, whither, in the 

 middle of the sixth century, she escaped to take the veil. 

 " Here the delicate hands of the queen, of the Abbess 

 Agnes, and of the nuns cultivated roses and other 

 flowers, that, woven into garlands or scattered on the 

 table to form a perfumed covering, ornamented the 

 refectory." Perhaps some of these blossoms had clus- 

 tered over an arbour there, where the poet Venantius 

 Fortunatus (a rather Epicurean bishop with many 

 pagan proclivities), surrounded by a group of admir- 

 ing "sisters," used to compose his sonnets and enjoy 

 en ame pr'ecieuse the sweetness of open-air life. 



