EARLY TUDOR GARDENS. 95 



find no mention of changes being made there. The gardens at 

 York Place, the Whitehall of later times, had been laid out by 

 Wolsey with great taste and care, and this place, like Hampton 

 Court, was also given over to the King. 



Towards the end of his reign, Henry VIII. , having com- 

 pleted his alterations at Hampton Court, turned his attention 

 to laying-out and beautifying the grounds at Nonsuch, near 

 Ewell, in Surrey.* He purchased the lands of Cuddington, in 

 1538, and there built a palace : 



" Which no equal has in art or fame 

 Britons deservedly do Nonsuche name." 



Another contemporary writer, describing the place, says of 

 it : " The Palace itself is so encompassed with parks, full of deer, 

 delicious gardens, groves ornamented with trellis work, cabinets 

 of verdure, and walks so embowered by trees, that it seems 

 to be a place pitched upon by Pleasure herself to dwell in 

 along with Health." f Henry VIII. never quite completed 

 Nonsuch, but it was held for a time by Henry FitzAlan, Earl 

 of Arundel, who continued to carry out the King's designs. 

 Queen Elizabeth, Anne, Queen of James I., and Henrietta 

 Maria, all paid visits to the place, but did not stay there for long. 

 The parliamentary survey of the palace and gardens, made in 

 1650, shows there were several walled gardens, divided by 

 thick thorn hedges, also alleys, a wilderness, and privy garden, 

 and a large kitchen-garden. There was also a terrace in front of 

 the house, and a " handsome bowling-green/' The whole was 

 rather Italian in style, with many fountains and statues. 

 Charles II. gave the place to the Duchess of Cleveland, who 

 pulled it down, and the destruction of this once magnificent 

 palace was completed by her grandson, the Duke of Grafton, 

 who cut down the trees and destroyed the park.J 



* Minister's Accounts, 31-32 Henry VIII., No. 10. Sir Ralph Sadler, 

 steward of the manor, received 40! a day for the custody of " Gardinorum, 

 Pomariorum et ortorum." 



t Nichols, Progress of Queen Elizabeth. 



\ Camden's Britannia. Ed. Gough, 1806. 



