nxvii. 



.elinesse ,.f" this your garden plot : I intend to 

 M-t li-t.in- \ou divers figures of proportions and the 

 manner of drawing of them cunningly, to the crul 

 you may have the means to duise those which shall 

 most delight you." Numerous designs of these 

 knots somewhat resembling the strapwork motifs 

 then used in interior decoration appear in all 

 gardening publications of this time, the chief pro- 

 ducer of them having been a French prior named 

 1'ercher, then acknowledged to have ken " the most 

 excellent man in this art." Very elaborate patterns 

 were outlined with box, germander, or other apt 

 growths, and filled in with divers coloured earths ; 

 but Bacon rightly declares that " these be but 

 Toys, you may see as good sights many times 

 in Tarts." The simpler patterns allowed of the 

 spaces being tilled in with flowering plants, and 

 produced, on a large stale, something of the 

 effect of the carpet bedding of recent days. 

 The "Country House" devotes chapters to the 

 "Sweet Smelling Hcarbes" and the " Hcarks for 

 flowers or Nose-gaies " which are to be set in 

 these knots. But even the latter are not there 

 merely to please the eye ; all have " Virtues,' 1 ami 

 we get the poetic assurance that "he that shall 

 have taken a blow upon the head, so that it 

 hath astonished him, shall not have anie greater 

 hurt if presently, after such a blow, he drinke 

 Violet flowers stampt, and continue the same drinke 

 for a ccrtaine time." If by ill-fortune you happen 

 to have an accident when violets are not in flower, 

 another remedy offers, for sage " hath singular virtue 

 to comfort the sinewes that are hurt by being tnxlen 

 upon or otherwise become weak." But this is only 

 one of the many virtues of this invaluable herb, 

 which we have now ignorantly limited to goose- 

 stuffing. " To stirre appetite and cleanse the 

 Stomackc full of ill humours, sage must be used 

 oftentimes in potagc." Still more drastic is the fair 

 narcissus, whose "Virtue" is most succinctly but 

 forcibly told " the root thereof lx>ylcd and roasted 

 and taken with meat or drinke doth greatly procure 

 vomit." 



In the same volume as Mafkham's "Country 

 House-Wife's Garden" appeared, in 1618, William 

 I jwson's " New Orchard.' With him, the word 

 orchard was still synonymous with garden, and 

 we gather from the book itself that he was a small 

 country gentleman in the North of F.ngland, 

 occupying himself with gardening and farming for 

 both profit and pleasure, and he claims to write 

 originally and only from his own observation. There- 

 fore, although his remarks show him to have been 

 well acquainted with the leading foreign authorities 

 through Markham's translations, the work is of 

 great interest as giving us the esthetic aims and 

 spirit, as well as the practical and remunerative 

 activities, of landholders of moderate means in the 

 North of England in James I. 's reign. The garden 

 plan which he gives is largely utilitarian. Of its 

 six squares in pairs on three levels descending to 

 the water five arc for vegetables and fruit and one 

 only reserved for knots. But a fountain stands in 

 the centre, the sanded ways are broad and easy, the 

 descents effected by flights of steps, while the four 

 corners are occupied by mounts topped with arbours. 

 The quality of the soil, the preparing of t he- 

 ground, the planting, propagating and growing of the 

 selected trees and herbs occupy most of the book ; 



but reminds his readers that all this will he 



only " half good so long as it want* those comely 



Ornaments that should give beauty to all our labour* 

 and make much for the honest delight of the owner 

 and his friends," and he dci lares that "of all other 

 delights on Karth they that are taken by Orchards 

 are most excellent." Formal as his garden is, it 

 never occurred to him that it was drearily artificial and 

 d .!!. monotonous, or that it shut out the view and 

 w.is contrary to Nature ; it was a century ami a-half 

 later before such opinions arose, and kforc it kcamc 

 fashionable to lay out grounds for the s|n-iial produc- 

 tion of premeditated emotions. If I-awson's garden 

 u.is artificial, his emotions were natural enough. 

 They were the purest welling up of satisfied pride 

 and simple joy over the results of his thought and 

 labour. " \ iew now with delight the workes of your 

 own hands, your fruit-trees of all sorts, loaden with 

 sweet blossoms and fruit of all tastes ojH-rations and 

 colours : your trees standing in comely order which 

 way soever you lix>kc ; your lx>rdcrs on even 

 side hanging and drooping with Fckrrics, K.isp 

 k-rries, Barberries, Currents, and the rootes of your 

 trees powdered with Strawkrries, red white and 

 greene, what a pleasure is this ! " Amid all this he 

 delights in the song of birds, but is careful not to k : 

 the a-sthetic sense become a vice and an extrava- 

 gance. The practical, sturdy North Countryman 

 preponderates. He admits that blackbirds on 

 a May morning may gratify the senses, but he 

 reminds you of the later depredations on "your 

 Cherries and Berries" if you encourage them, and he 

 thriftily concludes that he " had rather want their 

 company than his fruit." Nightingales are another 

 matter, for not only is a brood of them " a chicfe 

 grace," but they will clear you of " Caterpillers and 

 noysomc wormes, and the gentle Kobin-red-breast and 

 the silly Wren will help in this." When he comes to 

 the purely decorative section he lets himself go rather 

 freely for a small man of moderate purse, and 

 probably sketches his ambitions rather than his 

 realised performance. " When you behold, in divers 

 corners of your Orchard, Mounts of stone or wood 

 curiously wrought within or without, or of earth 

 covered with fruit trees : Kentish Cherry, Damsons, 

 Plummes, etc., with Staires of precious workmanship. 

 And in some corner (or mo') a true Dyall or Clock", 

 and some Antickc workes and especially some silver- 

 sounding Musiquc, mixt Instruments and voices 

 gracing all the rest : How will you be wrapt with 

 delight ? " We suspect that here there is something 

 culled from the bookshelf rather than from personal 

 experience, and still more so in his topiary advice : 

 " Your Gardener can frame your lesser wood to the 

 shape of men armed in the field, ready to give battcll ; 

 or swift running Greyhounds : or of well scntcd and 

 true running Hounds to chase the Deere or hunt the 

 I lare. This kind of hunting shall not waste your Cornc 

 nor much your Coyne." \ cry likely not ; nevertheless 

 his neighbours continued to prefer the real thing 

 despite the expense. There is indeed, throughout, 

 a certain pleading tone akmt Ijwson. He is not so 

 much the chronicler of an established art as the 

 advocate of a new one. People in his position and 

 of his means (and it is to them that the k>ok is 

 addressed) were only beginning to take up the 

 " ( i.irden of Pleasure," such as he sketches it, and he 

 asks them to establish on a moderate scale, but for 

 the same reasons, what had hitherto rather been a 



