12 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



"all the Alleys were made playne with sand." 

 Then Chaucer seems to foreshadow Spenser's 

 joy and delight in English flowers and Gardens. 

 Of all the many poems written about Gardens, 

 fruits and flowers, John Gardener's (144) was 

 perhaps the earliest original work. Little is known 

 of him, and his poem (in reality a treatise in verse) 

 is of so practical a nature that it is thought that 

 he himself was a Gardener. He gives excellent 

 descriptions of the grafting of trees and the setting 

 and sowing of seed, and the flowers and herbs 

 he mentions are of great interest as showing 

 what were commonly grown in England in his 

 day. 



In an illuminated copy of the " Romance of the 

 Rose " in the British Museum a fascinating picture 

 is found of a Garden of the fifteenth century. A 

 wonderful Garden it represents, filled with quaint 

 beauties and devices ; it is surrounded with battle- 

 mented walls, and divided into two Gardens by a 

 lattice screen. One is "a Privy Garden," leading 

 into a Pleasance ; the latter is carpeted with grass, 

 patterned with daisies. A copper fountain, en- 

 circled by a marble curb, stands in the midst of 

 the grass, with Orange-trees in the background. 

 The second Garden is cut into grass plots edged 

 with Box, and in the distance, separated again by 

 a fence, are flower-beds. This type of Garden is 

 most aptly described by King James I. of Scot- 



