CHAPTER VII 



GARDEN DESIGN IN THE NETHERLANDS 



HE influence of the Italian Renaissance in architecture 

 penetrated to the Netherlands at about the same 

 period as it did to France, that is, in the early years of 

 the sixteenth century. The Dutch had already a 

 European reputation for their cultivation of flowers. As 

 early as the end of the fifteenth century we read of 

 the vermakhoven, or pleasure yards, and of the dwellers 

 in towns laying out their gardens. In Amsterdam a certain Sheriff Benning 

 laid out the gardens at his country seat at Brillenburg on the Amstel. Such 

 gardens were of very simple design, and quite small, only consisting of one 

 or more courts, each serving a special domestic purpose. 



Erasmus in his Colloquies draws a vivid picture of the square walled 

 enclosures " neatly kept and in perfect order " that might as well have applied 

 to his own native Holland as to either Italy or England. " Designed for 

 the entertainment of the Sight, the Smell, and the Refreshment of the very 

 Mind," it consisted of a series of walled enclosures, one containing nothing 

 but sweet herbs " and those only choice ones too ; " and every kind had its bed 

 by itself. From the Fountain basin, cunningly contrived in imitation of 

 marble, small channels run to every corner of the garden, reflecting the border- 

 ing flowers in their surface. The garden walls are painted with trees and 

 flowers as " one piece of ground will not holdall sorts of plants " and " 'tis a 

 double pleasure to compare painted Flowers with the Life, moreover, the 

 Painting holds fresh and green all the Winter when the Flowers are dead and 

 wither'd." Beyond the Herb-garden was " an indifferent fair garden cut 

 into two : the one's for the Kitchin, and that's my Wife's ; the other is a 

 Physick Garden ! Upon the left hand, you have an open green Meadow 

 enclosed with a Quickset Hedge. There do I take the Air sometimes, and 



