59 o GARDENS OF VARIOUS NATIONS. 



large nuts, cherries, and vines, the cuttings of the latter being also 

 sold. Beans, onions, garlic, leeks, and a few other vegetals, were 

 also grown in this garden. It is mentioned that to replenish it 

 cuttings of some varieties of pear were purchased. A paling or fosse 

 enclosed the grounds, in which was a pond or vivary, containing 

 some pike. 



But there is very little to be said about the gardens of England 

 until the reign of Henry VIII., when those at Nonesuch (whose 

 site is only a few miles from " My Garden ") and Hampton Court 

 were made. Nonesuch, as its name implies, was considered to be the 

 wonder of the age : on it no expense was spared. The grounds were 

 laid out in a formal style, and they comprised kitchen and pleasure 

 gardens, a wilderness, and small park. Dispersed in the pleasure 

 gardens were columns and pyramids of marble, and fountains. This 

 place was, in the last century, relaid out in the modern style by 

 Kent. The finest grounds that were formed in Queen Elizabeth's 

 reign were at Hatfield and at Beddington, as has been already men- 

 tioned in the first chapter. 



The same formal old English style of laying out gardens continued 

 until Charles the Second's reign, notwithstanding that Lord Bacon 

 strongly protested in the time of James I. against the clipping 

 of trees, and "the making of knots or figures, with divers coloured 

 earths, that they may be under the windows of the house on that 

 side on which the garden stands. They be," continues he, " but toys : 

 you may see as good sights many times in tarts." Judging from some 

 of the beds at the Horticultural Gardens and at Bethlehem Hospital, 

 this great philosopher has not to the present day succeeded in eradi- 

 cating this reprehensible custom. 



On an invitation from Charles II., Le Notre came over to this 

 country, and laid out the parks of Greenwich and of St. James's. He 

 also planted the Mall with an avenue of trees, and from this time to the 

 accession of William and Mary his style became general throughout 

 the country, when it was superseded by that of the extremely uncom- 

 mendable Dutch, and then not only did Hampton Court become con- 



