ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



gardens, were, if possible, connected with every religious 

 foundation, and were often its greatest pride and glory. 

 Manual labour was obligatory, and the monks adopted 

 agriculture and horticulture as their favourite pursuits. 



" Beside the spacious monastic buildings," Monsieur 

 Joret says, "one always found a garden. Although it 

 was destined above all to supply -the needs of the con- 

 vent with vegetables, which served for the nourishment 

 of the cenobites, and with aromatic or medicinal herbs, 

 cultivated for the remedies which they furnished, yet 

 some flowers also were cherished for the pleasure they 

 gave the eye and for their fragrance, as well as to 

 deck the altar on a feast day." 



Of these monastic gardens few actual traces or exact 

 records have been preserved in England. But William 

 of e Tho P mey of Malmesbury's delightful description of the cultivated 

 grounds close to Thorney Abbey, near Peterborough, 

 early in the twelfth century, will give an impression of 

 their general appearance. " It represents a very Para- 

 dise, for that in pleasure and delight it resembles heaven 

 itself. The marshes abound in trees, whose length 

 without a knot doth emulate the stars. The plain 

 there is as level as the sea, which with green grass 

 allures the eye, and is so smooth that there is nought 

 to hinder him who runs through it. Neither is there 

 any waste space, for in some parts are apple trees, in 

 others, vines, which are either spread on the ground or 



William of 



Malmes- 



bury's 



Abbey. 



