GARDENS OF THE STUARTS 171 



England. Of these and their works more will be said 

 later. Dutch authorities were also consulted, as 

 shown by Hartlib's " Discourse of Husbandrie used in 

 Brabant and Flanders." But Parkinson, Evelyn, Rea, 

 and Worlidge, the best English writers of this period, 

 although they took note of foreign fashions, did their 

 utmost to uphold English traditions. 



At Hatfield there are a series of gardens especially Hatfieid. 

 interesting as showing the transition from the simple 

 Elizabethan flower-garden to the more formal pleasure 

 grounds of the Stuarts. On three sides of the present 

 house, built for the first Lord Salisbury by John 

 Thorpe of Padua, are gardens belonging, roughly 

 speaking, to three different periods those of Eliza- 

 beth, of James I, and of Charles II. Each is a very 

 good example of its kind. Perhaps the planting has 

 been more or less altered, but the design remains 

 practically as it was in the beginning. 



The earliest portions near the site of an ancient palace 

 (of which the remains have been turned into a stable) lie 

 west of the present mansion. But of the three divi- 

 sions located there, only one was surely laid out in the 

 time of Elizabeth. This is the enclosure surrounded 

 by pleached limes, known as the Privy Garden. Here The privy 

 Queen Elizabeth herself must have often walked, shaded 

 beneath the broad brim of a garden hat still preserved 

 at Hatfield. This precious relic was a gift from the 



