BROCKENHURST 



The English gardens in which Mr. Elgood delights to paint are for the 

 most part those that have come to us through the influence of the 

 Italian Renaissance ; those that in common speech we call gardens of 

 formal design. The remote forefathers of these gardens of Italy, now so 

 well known to travellers, were the old pleasure-grounds of Rome and the 

 neighbouring districts, built and planted some sixteen hundred years ago. 



Though many relics of domestic architecture remain to remind us that 

 Britain was once a Roman colony, and though it is reasonable to suppose 

 that the conquerors brought their ways of gardening with them as well 

 as their ways of building, yet nothing remains in England of any Roman 

 gardening of any importance, and we may well conclude that our gardens 

 of formal design came to us from Italy, inspired by those of the Renais- 

 sance, though often modified by French influence. 



Very little gardening, such as we now know it, was done in England 

 earlier than the sixteenth century. Before that, the houses of the better 

 class were places of defence ; castles, closely encompassed with wall or 

 moat ; the little cultivation within their narrow bounds being only for 

 food — none for the pleasure of garden beauty. 



But when the country settled down into a peaceful state, and men 

 could dwell in safety, the great houses that arose were no longer fortresses, 

 but beautiful homes both within and without, inclosing large garden 

 spaces, walled with brick or stone only for defence from wild animals, 

 and divided or encompassed with living hedges of yew or holly or horn- 

 beam, to break wild winds and to gather on their sunny sides the life- 

 giving rays that flowers love. 



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D. H. HILL LIBRARY 



North Carolina State ColleKe 



