ENGLISH GARDENS OF i6th, 17TH AND i8th CENTURIES 209 



sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the houses of the upper classes must 

 have been very fragrant, for in addition to placing flowers about the rooms, 

 the floors were often strewn with herbs. Levimus Leminius, a Dutchman 

 travelling in this country in 1560, writes of the English people that " their 

 chambers and parlours strawed over with sweet herbes refreshed mee ; their 

 nosegays finely intermingled with sundry sorts of fragraunte floures, in their 

 bed chambers and privy rooms, with comfortable smell cheered me up, 

 and entirely delyghted all my senses." 



The most important rooms of the manor houses generally faced the 

 flower plots massed with bright colours. " What more delightful than 

 an. infinite varietie of sweet smeUing flowers ? " writes William Lawson, 

 the Isaac Walton of Gardeners, " colouring not onely the earth, but deck- 

 ing the ayre, and sweetning every breath and spirit." 



The plan, subject to much variety in the treatment of detail, was usually 

 drawn up on somewhat similar lines to that of Montacute, in Somersetshire, 

 with a walled forecourt in front of the house, which unlike the continental 

 chateaux was rarely moated, sometimes paved with stone, but more often 

 laid out in turf with a fountain pool. Occasionally there was also a second 

 or ante-court which seems to have been designed more for the sake of dignity 

 than utility. On one side of the forecourt lay the base or bass-court 

 surrounded by the kitchens, stables, and other domestic offices which it was 

 intended to serve, and on the other sides the more ornamental pleasure 

 gardens and parterres. 



Overlooking the garden and next to the house would be the terrace, 

 usually some twenty to thirty feet wide. In Tudor gardens these were 

 often placed in a position next to the enclosing walls where a view of the 

 surrounding country might be obtained, as well as affording a convenient 

 point of vantage from which to see the arrangement of the garden plots. 

 Such a terrace may still be found in the Privy Garden at Hampton Court, 

 where it rises to within a few feet of the top of the wall. 



The parterre was divided into square plots edged with knots and com- 

 partments. Much attention was devoted to the edgings or borders, and 

 for this purpose strongly perfumed plants were usually chosen ; lavender, 

 sage, rosemary, marjoram and thyme, with a fountain in the middle with 

 pipes and open conduits carrying the water to all parts of the garden. Ar- 

 bours of trelHs were placed at convenient places at the angles or elsewhere. 



p 



