THE GARDENS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 



21 





work, placed away from the walls in the middle of a cloister garden. In 

 another example, shown in a woodcut of 1487, the child Jesus is seated upon 

 a turfed seat with attendant figures on the grass at His feet. Two illustra- 

 tions from Der Meister des Liebesgartens show a table set out for a feast 

 and a canopied throne for the lady personifying Love. The mediaeval 

 custom of raising the flower bed well above the ground was a very pleasing 

 one and worthy of imitation nowadays. 



The parterre was subdivided into 

 compartments of trellis work, square 

 or diamond-shaped (illus., p. 27), or 

 else of rough lattice, the angle posts 

 often gaily decorated in colour, while 

 the main paths and alleys were either 

 of grass or loosely covered with sand. 

 Wooden galleries, their structure con- 

 cealed by flowering shrubs or vines, 

 often encircled the garden. 



Sauval, the historian of Paris, tells 

 us that the town gardens of Paris in 

 the fifteenth century were surrounded 

 by hedges, kept within bounds b^- 

 crossed stakes or else by tunnels of ver- 

 dure framed in a similar way. Guille- 

 bert de Aletz, in his description of Paris 

 in 1422, relates that on the fortifications 

 of the Petit Chatelet the Parisians cul- 

 tivated curious hanging gardens in this 

 way. In the Menager de Parish com- 

 posed about 1393, we find an account 

 of the plants, flowers and vegetables usually cultivated in town gardens. 



From very early times labyrinths were laid out in gardens. At first 

 merely winding paths cut in the ground, they later on developed into walks 

 entirely enclosed by hedges. Charles V laid out a famous labyrinth known 

 as the Maison de Dedale in the gardens of the Hotel Saint Paul, at 

 Paris, where amongst other curiosities was a collection of bay-trees which at 

 ^ Published by the Societe des bibliophiles jran^ais. 



A TRELLIS ARBOUR FROM "THE ROMAUNT 

 OF THE ROSE." 



