INTKODI 





icning and t ill kiti.N of sports ; 



nor was theology entirely outside his MH|H:, aiul he 

 vv.is, moreo\er, a |*>el and a playwright. 1 he tirlc-ptgc 

 it" his "Country House- " tells us that it is a " trans- 

 lation from Esticnne and l.u-luult by K" 1 Surrlcct, 

 Practitioner in I 1 ." but "reviewed and 



augmented with additions out of Scrrcs, Vinet and 

 others, .Spanish aiul Italian, by G. M Charles 



Kstiennc, of the famo.is family of French printers, 

 published the " Pru-dium Rusticum " in 1554, but 

 the French edition was brought out after his death 

 by his son-in-law, Jean I.icluult, in 1574; Olivier 

 de Serrcs's "Theatre d'Agriculturc" did not appear 

 till 1600, three years after Surflcct's translation of 

 Estiennc, and Markham's book aimed at giving 

 a comprehensive survey of Continental practice 

 up to his own time with a view to its general adop- 

 tion in England by people of m<xleratc fortunes. 

 Out of five books composing the volume, Book II. 

 deals with gardens. A situation is recommended 

 where the owner can enjoy the garden from his 

 windows : "Some plaine plot of ground, which is, .is 

 it were, a little hanging, and thereby at the fcx>t 

 thereof receiving the stream of some pleasant water." 

 It must be hedged, or, better, walled " if the revenues 

 of the House will bearc it." Utility is the principal 

 object, but it is specially urged that the country- 

 house, besides kitchen garden, orchard and fields, 

 needs a "Garden of Pleasure," in laying out which 

 *JfOU are veric much to respect the forme and pro- 

 portion of the same." English country squires had 

 Ixxrn content with a summer-house and a flower 

 border amid the utility plots, and were not used to 

 set aside a piece of ground merely to satisfy the 

 xsthctic sense. Nor does Markham dare to suggest 

 a complete severance, but two sections, the one with 

 a preponderance of flowers and the other with a 

 preponderance of vegetables. In his tract on the 

 " Country House-Wife's Garden " he specially lays 

 down that he does not " meane so perfect a distinction 

 that the garden for flowers should or can bee without 

 herbes good for the kitchin, or the Kitchin Garden 

 should want flowers. But for the most part they 

 would be severed : first because your Garden flowers 

 shall suffer some disgrace if among them you inter- 

 mingle Onions, Parsnips, etc. Secondly your Garden 

 that is durable must be of one forme : but that which 

 is for the kitchins use must yeeld daily ro.>ts or other 

 herbes and suffer deformity." So in his "Country 

 House," following Esticnne, he requires the kitchen 

 garden to be "compassed and set about with lattice 

 workc, and young common bordering stuffc to be made- 

 up afterwards and continued into arbours, or as it were 

 into small chapells or oratories and places to make a 

 speech out of, that many standing about and below 

 may heare." But we arc left entirely in the dark as 

 to the reason why the kitchen garden was thus to IK- 

 adapted to the Primrose League meetings of that 

 age. If th : s conceit has gained no hold, the 

 principle that "the kitchen girdcn should not 

 want flowers " still prevails among us, and great 

 herbaceous borders stretching down on each side 

 of the central alley is a favourite device for giving 

 presence and dignity to the vegetable ground. 

 The gardens at Tyninghame (page xvii.) include 

 a fine example of this feature. As to the garden 

 of pleasure, Markham lays it down that it " must be 

 cast and contrived close to the one side of the kitchin 

 garden, but yet so that they arc sundered by the 



intercourse of 4 great large alley as also a hrd 

 quickset having \ doorcv" " Common bordering 

 sturtf" will not ,' for its eiu Insure ; it must IK- 

 n passed in with arbour, made of Jcsamm, 

 I'.osemane, Box, Juniper, Cypress tr< .vin, 



Cedars, Rose trees and other dainties, first pleached 

 and pruned according as the nature of cvcnc one 

 doth require, hut after brought into some forme and 

 order with Willow or Juniper poles such as ma\ 

 serve for the making of arbours. ' This clearly is a 

 simple and inexpensive way of running a trclliscd 

 corridor round the garden and gifting the same 

 effect as was obtained by the fully built galleries at 

 I l.unpton Court and Thornbury, or in the highly 

 architectural trellis work g tileries used by the 

 French architect l)u Ccrccau in the princely gardens 

 he laid out towards the end of the sixteenth century. 

 I U describes Anet as having gardens "of gre.it si/ t - 

 and richly girt with galleries all about them, the 

 three sides of which are as often with arched as with 

 square openings ; the whole rustic." This is precisely 

 the scheme exhibited in the garden which forms the 

 frontispiece to Crispin dc Passe's " Hortus Floridus " 

 | ublished at Arnheim in 1614. We reproduce 

 ( wgc xiii.) that from the English edition, published 

 Utrecht in 1616, and described as containing 

 1 Rarer ami less Vulgar flowers accurately drawn by 

 the incredible labour and diligence of Crispin de 

 I'.isse, jun." The plates in the British Museum 

 copy are beautifully coloured by hand, including 

 the frontispiece, which is quite distinct from that 

 in the Arnheim edition. Instead of a mere trellised 

 arbour, the central erection is a solid " carpenter's 

 work" temple with a pcdimentcd front. A cava ier 

 rests on the balustrade and a lady in a golden dress is 

 handling tulips, of which there are f" ur beds. In the 

 1614 edition the arrangement of beds is different and 

 no tulips appear in them. Moreover, in the Ivxlv <>t 

 fie earlier book there arc plates of type tulips only, 

 whereas in the English edition there arc eleven 

 additional plates giving new varieties, named after 

 Dutchmen mostly, and supported by uprights 

 topped with a ring, exactly like the carnation 

 supports which have lately come into vogue, but 

 made of twisted willow twigs instead of wire. 

 This addendum in the English edition marks the 

 beginning of the tulip ' mania " and fixes its date. 



This English c.tition of Crispin dc Passe was 

 published in the same year as Markham's "Country 

 House," of whose "garden of pleasure" knots arc to 

 l>c the leading decoration. A chapter is headed, "Of 

 the forme of setting Hcarbcs in order by proportion 

 and divers fashions," and contains careful instructions 

 and numerous figures of knots and mazes. Here, 

 however, unlike most chapters, the dogmatic word 

 "must " docs not begin every instruction ; some choice 

 and licence is allowed to the individual, and the pre- 

 amble states: "I cannot set thce downc an universal) 

 and, as it were, inviolable prescript and ordinance, 

 seeing the fashions of proportions doc depend partly 

 upon the spirit and invention of the gardener, and 

 partly upon the pleasure of the maistcr and Ix>rd unto 

 whom the ground and garden appcrtaincth : the one 

 whereof is lead by the hops and skips, turnings and 

 windings of his brainc ; the other oy the pleasing 

 of his eye according to his best tantasie. Notwith- 

 standing, that there may not anything be here 

 omitted which might workc your better contentment 

 and greater pleasure by looking upon the bcautie and 



