ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



The Oxford 



botanical 



garden. 



Garden lit- 

 erature. 



The first public botanical garden in England, how- 

 ever, was not laid out until the reign of Charles I. It 

 was founded and endowed by Henry, Earl of Danby, 

 in 1632, at the University of Oxford. Five acres of 

 land were contained within its enclosure. Some of 

 the beds were simple oblongs for long rows of plants, 

 while others formed elaborate knots accented by cone- 

 shaped trees. By 1648 there already flourished sixteen 

 hundred varieties of plants, including twenty sorts of 

 roses, four of foxglove, ten of lychnis, nine of clematis, 

 and rare exotics such as nicotiana or English tobacco, 

 and yucca or Indian bread. Entrance gateways were 

 designed by Inigo Jones, and among other architectural 

 features were several greenhouses, an orangery, and 

 a house for the gardener. The illustration shows the 

 original orangery, gateways, and plan. At the close 

 of the seventeenth century, Celia Fiennes wrote that 

 these gardens " afforded great diversion and pleas- 

 ure ; the variety of flowers and plants would have 

 entertained one a week." 



The garden literature of the seventeenth century, apart 

 from herbals, illustrates a variety of phases. 

 The earlier books by such English writers 

 as Markham and Lawson practically re- 

 ferred to Elizabethan gardens. Then, as 

 the influence of Le Notre became para- 

 mount, a French school of gardeners was founded in 



