THE ELIZABETHAN FLOWER-GARDEN 135 



possible to have such an equal judge ... I doubt 

 not he would give the prize unto the garden of our 

 days." 



To appreciate the number of new plants introduced 

 at this period, we have only to compare the Eliza- 

 bethan herbals with those of earlier dates. Gerard's 

 list of plants grown in his own garden, and his herbal 

 imitated from the Dutch work of Dodoens, but con- 

 taining much original material, are the most valuable 

 sources of information. 



The reconstruction of Elizabethan gardens is com- Reconstmc- 

 paratively simple. Not only herbals giving the lists Elizabethan 



garden. 



of plants they contained, treatises on horticulture 

 advising how they should be cultivated, and books 

 showing how they were to be planned and ornamented 

 have been handed down to us, but many of the 

 actual gardens remain with their architectural features 

 unaltered, and only slightly injured by changes in the 

 style of planting. The gardens described were often- 

 est on a small scale, for, as Markham suggests, 

 " Great cages make the bird never a whit the 

 better." 



The house might be placed practically wherever the 

 owner pleased. One writer advised that it should be 

 located "on the edge of some great hill, upon some 

 small hill, or the top of the hill if the country be 

 tempestuous and full of mountains," while another 



