126 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



their pleasure, to grow in sundry proportions, as in the fashion of 

 a cart, a peacock, or such by things as they fancy." * 



Flowers were planted in borders along the walks and hedges, 

 "thin and sparingly, lest they deceive the trees " t (i.e. rob the 

 trees of nourishment), but the principal receptacles for flowers 

 were " open beds," called " open knots," in contradistinction to 

 the complicated knots. The most practical gardeners did not 

 look with favour on the " curiously knotted garden," J although 

 all books of this period give designs for knots. Parkinson has a 

 page of designs merely to " satisfy the desires " of his readers ; he 

 himself considered " open knots " more suitable for the display of 

 flowers. There was not any room left for planting other things 

 between the lines of thyme, thrift, hysop, or whatever the 

 intricate pattern was carried out in. Sometimes the design was 

 simply drawn out in coloured earths, a practice of which Bacon 

 disapproved ; " As for the making of knots or figures with 

 divers-coloured earths .... they be but toys, you may see as 

 good sights many times in tarts." The more simple knots were 

 usually bordered with box, a practice which seems to have been 

 introduced by French gardeners. Parkinson calls it " French or 

 Dutch Box," and recommends it " chiefly and above all other 

 herbs," as it was not so liable to overgrow the beds and distort 

 the pattern, as " Thrift, Germander, Marjerome, Savorie," &c., 

 and did not suffer so much from " the frosts and snows in 

 winter," or the " drought in summer." Lavender cotton 

 (Santolina cham&cyparissus) , a new importation, was also used, 

 and "the rarity and novelty of this herb being for the most 

 part but in the gardens of great persons, doth cause it to be 

 of greater regard." 



If herbs or box were not used for bordering, " dead material " 

 was the alternative, such as lead, either plain or " cut out 

 like unto the battlements of a church," or oak boards, or 

 tiles, or the shank-bones of sheep, " stuck in the ground, the 

 small end downwards, which will become white, and prettily 

 grace out the ground." Another plan was to use " round 



* Barnaby Googe's Husbandry, 1578. Translation of Conrad of Heresbach. 

 j" Bacon. J Love's Labour's Lost, act i. scene i. Parkinson. 



