70 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



Plants as a scraps of food suggest the listless lord in a mediaeval 



diversion. 



poem, seeking distraction by tossing bread and grain 

 to the swans from his castle window into the moat 

 below. Then, especially to the chatelaine and her 

 women, a few plants must often have afforded as much 

 diversion as the little flower whose care saved the reason 

 of an imprisoned patriot and gave^its name to the Italian 

 story " Picciola." 

 Berkeley Of the early Anglo-Norman style of architecture, 



Castle 



Berkeley Castle is perhaps the most complete example 

 now existing. The keep is said to date from the time 

 of William the Conqueror. The whole castle is still 

 inhabited and preserved in almost its original condition. 

 Around the massive building runs a terrace intended 

 both for a walk and to prevent the walls from being 

 mined by besiegers. One of these terraces, covered 

 with grass and flanked by an ancient yew hedge clipped 

 in the shape of rude battlements, forms a quaint bowl- 

 ing green. How long it has been laid out as such 

 is unknown, but probably for several centuries. 

 Terrace Terraces, like the one adjoining these battlements, 



walks. 



were, in those tumultuous times, the only safe place for 

 the ladies to enjoy an airing. A portion was often re- 

 served for their especial use, and, as at Castle Carlisle, 

 called the Ladies' Walk. There, at a much later period, 

 Mary, Queen of Scots, when captive was allowed to take 

 her exercise. At Bridgnorth, a pleasant terrace walk, 



