148 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



inward quarters wherein you place the knots or other 

 devices may be bound as well with fine envious hedges 

 made battlementwise in sundry forms, according to in- 

 vention, or carrying the proportions of pilasters, flowers, 

 shapes of beasts, birds, creeping things, ships, trees, 

 and suchlike." These hedges were considered advan- 

 tageous, because they did not take up much room and 

 could be set with a variety of different shrubs. The 

 frame of the design was constructed either of wood or 

 wire. 



In " Floraes Paradise," Sir Hugh Platt says, " Instead 

 of privie hedges about a quarter I commend a fence 

 made of lath or sticks thinly placed and after graced 

 with dwarf apple and plomme trees, spread abroad upon 

 the stick." This is one of the earliest mentions of trees 

 grown to form an espalier. As the gardens were infested 

 with rabbits, it was evidently necessary to have some 

 form of protection for the beds. 



The beds were raised from one to two feet above 

 the level of the paths and laid out in the beautiful 

 designs called knots. Markham says that the pattern 

 of the design could not be decided by rule, but de- 

 pended upon the gardener and the pleasure of his 

 master, " The one whereof is led by the hops and 

 skips, turning and windings of his brain ; the other by 

 the pleasing of his eye according to his best fantasie." 

 In looking at the patterns of the knots it must be 



