MONASTIC GARDENS 51 



raised on poles. A mutual strife is there between 

 nature and art ; so that what one produces not, the 

 other supplies." 



A twelfth-century plan of Canterbury, showing the P^ of Can- 

 cloisters containing a herbarium and a conduit, with the twelfth 



century. 



the fish-pond, orchard, and vineyard outside the walls, 

 gives only a rough idea of the planting and arrange- 

 ment; but there is no other even as complete belong- 

 ing to this early period. Since, however, the various 

 parts of all monasteries, appertaining to the same order, 

 were disposed with as much uniformity as the exi- 

 gencies of the situation permitted, the general scheme 

 of the English monastic gardens can be gathered from 

 the plans and descriptions of those on the continent. 

 The building was usually placed in a valley near a river, 

 in order that the grounds might be easily irrigated. 

 Among the important divisions the cloister-garth con- 

 tained perhaps the most characteristic features, and is 

 especially interesting on account of its resemblance to 

 the classic Grecian peristyle and to the Roman atrium, 

 or impluvium. According to Viollet le Due : 



"It is probable that the first cloisters were porticoes The cloisters 



... of western 



of the same kind as those of antiquity, that is to say; origin, 

 a sloping roof of carpentry borne upon columns, of 

 which the base rests on the ground. We have sought 

 vainly to discover at what period the well-known dis- 

 position of the Roman impluvium was modified to 



