MONASTIC GARDENING. 9 



cloisters ; the other the orchard and vineyard which were 

 situated beyond the walls. The first plan records also trees 

 within the wall near the fish-pond. In later times a further 

 wall was built beyond the fish-pond, including what was after- 

 wards known as the old convent garden, the site of which was 

 obtained in parcels between the years 1287 and 1368. There 

 must have been another orchard on the west of the great cloister 

 and a garden into which the palace of the Archbishop looked, 

 but these were beyond the limits of the plans, although con- 

 temporary with them, as they are associated with the closing 



PART OF THE PLAN OF THE MONASTERY, CANTERBURY, SHOWING THE ORCHARD 

 AND VINEYARD FROM MS. CIRCA 1165. 



scenes in the life of Thomas Becket (1170). The knights who 

 were soon after his murderers " Threw off their cloaks and 

 gowns under a large sycamore in the garden, appeared in their 

 armour and girt on their swords," and armed men were collected 

 in the orchard so that Becket and his attendant monks flying 

 to the church had to pass through a small door at the back of 

 the cloister, instead of going by the usual passage through the 

 orchard to the west end of the church.* 



Few records of such an early date have come down to us, but 

 monastic life did not quickly change, and probably the gardens 



* Hist. Memorials of Canterbury. Dean Stanley. 



