INTRODUCTION. 



Pliny's elaborate porticoes, marble dining alcoves 

 and box trees cut into a thousand shapes, were more 

 than could be reproduced, at least Leland, in his 

 journeyings, finds that " fair logginges be new 

 erectid in the gardein " at Chenies, and he notes, 

 in various places, the introduction of the "opus 

 topiarius." It was so new to have an ample and 

 level space which could be exactly moulded to a 

 theoretic ground plan ; there was such lack of 

 native precedent, and such complete dependence 

 upon foreign ideas, that English gardens had for 

 long a tendency to be more definitely classical 

 than English houses, which retained much of the 

 form and feeling of mediaeval taste and native habit, 

 until the school of Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren 

 finally imposed the Palladian model. And yet, in 

 such early sixteenth century gardens as we still know 



we get some record and have some trace. They 

 mainly occupied the space between the south front 

 of the Palace and the river, and, though the latter 

 is by no means parallel with the former, sub-divisions 

 into walled enclosures permitted the more important 

 of these to be perfectly rectangular. The King 

 extended the Palace eastwards, and it was in front 

 of his " new lodgings " that his " privy garden " 

 lay. Its original name and area are preserved, but 

 none of its original disposition and detail. Westward 

 of it, however, lies the much smaller square enclo- 

 sure called the pond garden, which Mr. Law, in 

 his "History of Hampton Court," tells us "still 

 retains something of its ancient Tudor aspect, being 

 still divided into its original rectangular enclosures 

 by low brick walls, overgrown with creepers, in the 

 corners of which may be detected the bases of the 



THORPE HALL ENTRANCE. 



something of in Henry VIII. 's garden at Hampton 

 Court, and in Buckingham's at Thornbury we do 

 find traces of Burgundian Gothic, and a lingering of 

 the small defensive enclosures of the mediaeval 

 castles, showing that their designers possessed 

 instinctive associations which they could not at 

 once throw off. 



Wolsey undoubtedly laid out gardens at Hampton 

 Court before he gave it to the King in 1525, for 

 Cavendish, his gentleman usher and biographer, 

 makes him speak of: 



My gardens sweet, enclosed with VValles strong, 

 Kinbankcd with benches to sytt and take my rest, 

 The knotts so cnknotted it cannot be expressed ; 

 With Arbors and Alyes so pleasant and so dulce 

 The pcstylent ayers with flavors to repulse. 



But Wolsey's work was altered and extended by 

 Henry, and it is of the gardens of his time that 



stone pieces that supported the heraldic beasts." 

 These beasts, and the columns or posts they 

 stood on, were the favourite, and, indeed, the 

 rather monotonous, feature of Henry's gardens. 

 Thirty-eight in stone and 159 in wood are 

 enumerated in the very complete bills and wage- 

 lists which have been preserved. In Antonius 

 Wynegaarde's drawing of the Palace and its 

 grounds from the river, dating from shortly after 

 Henry's death, and before further alterations were 

 made, they are seen rising everywhere. In the 

 accounts for the year 1535 we find the entry : "Also 

 payd to Harry Corantt of Kyngston, carver, for 

 makying and entayllyng of 38 of the Kynges and 

 the quenys Beestes, in freeston, barying shyldes 

 wythe the Kynges armes and the Quenys ; that 

 is to say fowre dragownes, seyx lyones, fyve 



