120 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



All that was required was a stretch of good, firm turf 

 or gravel. Tennis was another favourite game. Henry 

 VIII was passionately fond of tennis. Sometimes he 

 used to play in the walled court for " close tennys play " 

 at Hampton Court, which is the oldest one in England, 

 and has since served as a model for many others. A 

 crowd of spectators always watched the king playing. 

 Giustiniani describes him as " extremely fond of tennis, 

 at which game it is the prettiest thing in the world to 

 see him play, his fair skin glowing through a shirt of 

 finest texture." Lawn tennis, or " open tennis play" was 

 another favourite diversion, 

 summary of Briefly, the garden was now a homely enclosure, 



the Tudor ,.,.,_,. i i 



garden. like the living room in a simple house containing 

 few, but good-sized, apartments. Sometimes one large 

 enclosure answered many purposes. First of all it 

 contained the medicinal herbs, for primarily garden- 

 ing was considered a profitable art because it was " so 

 chayned and linked to the noble arts both of physic 

 and surgery as by no means possible it may be to 

 separate the one from the others, but rather as a daily 

 handmaiden continually serveth them both." Then 

 it answered the purpose of the pleasaunce, provid- 

 ing alleys and arbours for people to walk on and sit 

 under, besides ground for games. Finally, it supplied 

 a mixture of vegetables and flowers for use and 

 ornament. The flower-garden proper, however, was not 



