i6o 



GARDEN CRAFT IN EUROPE 



divert myself with good Company. Upon the right hand there's a Nursery 

 of foreign Plants, which I have brought by degrees to endure this Climate. 

 At the end of the upper Walk, there's an Aviary : at the further end of the 

 Orchard I have my Bees, which is a sight worth your curiosity." ^ 



The earliest Dutch book on garden craft that gives definite instruc- 

 tions for laying out gardens was published in Antwerp in 1582. It is a 



A CASTLE GARDEN OF THE LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, FROM A PAINTING OF DIVES AND 

 LAZARUS ASCRIBED TO VREDEMAN DE VRIES. 



translation from the Praediuni rusticum of Charles Estienne, which had 

 appeared in Paris some thirty years earlier. According to this work the 

 gardens of that time were mostly used for the cultivation of vegetables. 

 The herb garden was considered the pleasantest of all. As in most horti- 

 cultural books of this period, besides the description of each plant, there is 



'^Colloquia : " Convivium Rellgiosum " (Translated by Sir Roger L'Estrange, Kt.). 



