68 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



Norman pre- In architecture, as well as horticulture, the Normans 

 architecture, excelled the Anglo-Saxons at the time of the Conquest. 

 The fortalices and monasteries first built by the conquer- 

 ors were a decided improvement on any previous erec- 

 tions in England. These, however, were not the castles 

 of which ruins now remain, but merely wooden towers or 

 keeps, sometimes strengthened by palisades and ditches, 

 used for defending important strategic positions for- 

 merly surmounted with earthworks by the Danes and 

 Saxons. But, until the Normans had subdued the entire 

 country, home life was an impossibility, and there was 

 no occasion for domestic architecture. Thus, while the 

 early monasteries were substantial stone buildings, com- 

 monly situated in the broadest and most fertile val- 

 leys, castles were ruder structures, generally erected on 

 windy hilltops, where their inmates devoted both time 

 and space to projects for offence and defence. To har- 

 bour in these bare strongholds such a peaceful pursuit 

 as gardening would have been impracticable. After 

 a few years, the danger of insurrection having lessened, 

 the Normans replaced their first wooden structures 

 by permanent castles built of stone. Still until the 

 twelfth century the times were far from peaceful, 

 and although agriculture and horticulture were among 

 the favourite occupations of the Normans, these cannot 

 have flourished extensively outside of monastic pre- 

 cincts. At Deeping, however, ancient records show 



