INTRODUCTION xxv 3 



the einphatical Decussation, or Fundamental Figure." 

 a writer of Sir Thomas's erudition, one 

 :ion enfolds and involves another, and we are 

 almost driven to explain Decussation but refrain in 

 deference to the reader's wishes and refer him to the 

 Diagram on our half-title (page 8-)and to the Oxford 

 Dictionary, from which the following is borrowed : 



" In Astrology, a Quincunx was an aspect of Planets 

 at a distance of 5 signs or 1 50 degrees apart, and the 

 simplest instance of a Quincunx is a die with 5 points 

 ::" Philemon Holland's Pliny has "For the order 

 of setting Trees we ought to follow the usual maner 

 of chequer Row called * Quincuncial.' " 



Thus far I had written when in Vernon Lee's 

 delightful study of Compiegne and FontainebJeau 1 my 

 eye Kt on the expression ** the big Quincunxed 

 Palace," and of a sudden it was revealed to me how 

 the essence of Browne's "Quincuncial lozenge of 

 the Ancients " had been sucked and absorbed by his 

 contemporaries and successors to produce those radiat- 

 ing groves, plantations and labyrinths, which in the 

 map-like plates a vol tTmseau of Kip and Knyff show 



1 No one who sympathises with the Genius of Gardens 

 in Italy.. France, Germany and Spain should fail to read 

 this writer's "Genins Loci," "Enchanted Woods," and 

 other studies breathing the true garden-spirit. 



