58 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



grant him the victory, a splendid chantry should 

 be erected for the souls of the slain. The high altar 

 is said to mark the spot where, in the thick of 

 the fiercest fighting, Harold, the king, was killed 

 and his body found by his betrothed, after nightfall. 

 The Abbey A step away from this historic spot, stretching be- 



gardens. . 



tween it and the restored rums, of the monastery, are 

 some beautiful modern gardens laid out by the late 

 Duchess of Cleveland. The stiff, geometrical patterns 

 of the parterre, bedded out with geraniums and edged 

 with box, produce an effect harmonious with the 

 building, although they are utterly unlike the homely 

 plantations formerly cultivated by the monks. Another 

 attractive arrangement is the terrace walk of grass in- 

 tersected by gravel paths beside the Abbey, with em- 

 brasures in the thick wall for seats, where, walking or 

 sitting, one overlooks a wonderful stretch of woodlands 

 and downs once traversed by William and his army. 

 Cistercian The Cistercians also, following in the footsteps of 

 the Benedictines, as theirs was an offshoot of the 

 older order, did much to further the progress of 

 horticulture on the continent and in England. Their 

 monasteries, as conspicuously bare of decoration as the 

 Benedictines', were built in the hollows of valleys, where 

 culture could fertilize the soil, and where there was an 

 abundance of water to irrigate the land. St. Bernard 

 founded the most famous of all their communities in 



