THE OLD ORANGEHY : KEW GARDENS 



CHAPTER VI 



GARDENS OF THE STUARTS 



N the days of the Stuarts the Eliza- seventeenth 



century de- 



bethan gardens underwent certain modi- veiopments. 



fications according to the predominance 



of French, Italian, or Dutch fashions. 



In architecture classic traditions pre- 

 vailed, but in garden design suggestions were less 

 welcomed from the ancient Greeks and Romans than 

 from contemporary horticulturists. Evelyn, a great 

 authority on gardens at the height of this period, con- 

 sidered the writings of Tusser, Markham, Hartlib, and 

 Walter Blith, with the " Philosophical Transactions," 

 " The Maison Rustique," and other books of a similar 

 description, as filled with much more valuable informa- 

 tion than could be found in Cato, Varro, Columella, 

 Palladio, or the Greek Geoponics. He also thought 

 that in floriculture, the gardeners of his day were far 

 ahead of the ancients, and that the number of plants 

 then known was infinitely greater than ever in the past. 



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