54 



ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



The cloister- 

 garth. 



The well. 



with mythological subjects, landscapes, and garlands 

 of flowers. On the walls of the Campo Santo at 

 Pisa are some charming fourteenth-century frescoes, 

 showing groups of people sitting and standing in an 

 earthly paradise. Their surroundings are especially 

 interesting, including a graceful hexagonal fountain with 

 conventional flowers in the foreground, and orange 

 and oak trees forming a charming background to the 

 picturesque figures. 



The grass plot in the midst of the cloisters was 

 sometimes called paradise, signifying to the monks, 

 according to Wiclif, the greenness of their virtues. 

 This verdant square was often thickly studded with 

 flowers as represented in early manuscript illuminations. 

 The flowers were under the charge of the sacristan, 

 and were intended to be used by him to decorate the 

 church at festivals and incidentally to give pleasure 

 to the eye when growing. Two paths crossing each 

 other at right angles divided the 

 grass plot into quarters, and some- 

 times at their intersection was a 

 tree, symbolizing to the brethren the 

 ladder by which, in gradations of vir- 

 tue, they aspired to celestial things. 

 More often, however, perhaps be- 

 cause cleanliness comes next to godliness, there was, 

 in the centre, a savina, or tub of water, for washing 



