MONASTIC GARDENS 63 



the summit of the bank, laid out in rectangular beds of 

 flowers alternating with rectangular grass plots each sur- 

 rounding a walnut tree, is an unusually charming for- 

 mal arrangement. In a plan of the Abbey made at the 

 time it was sold, about fifty years ago, this scheme of 

 planting is shown to have been the same as now, and it 

 probably dates back to a much earlier period. A twelfth- 

 century description of a similar piece of water helps us 

 to picture its part in the lives of the monks : 



" Here, also, a beautiful spectacle is exhibited to the 

 infirm brethren ; while they sit upon the green margin 

 of the huge basin, they see the little fishes playing under 

 the water, and representing a military encounter by swim- 

 ming to meet each other. This water serves the double 

 duty of supporting the fish and watering the vegetables." 



A break in the wall beside the walk, above the pond, is 

 well contrived to give a glimpse of the fine trees in the 

 beautiful park outside the enclosure. Here, perhaps, the 

 abbot was wont to chase the hart, for the ecclesiastics of The monks 

 old were very fond of hunting. The Bishop of Worcester 

 writes in 1030 to his brother bishop of St. David's, who 

 had promised him six couples of good sporting dogs, say- 

 ing that " his heart languished for their arrival," and con- 

 tinuing with the following entreaty : " Let them come, O 

 reverend father, without delay. Let my woods reecho 

 with the music of their cry and the cheerful notes of the 

 horn, and let the walls of my castle be decorated with the 

 trophies of the chase." 



