30 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND ii 



" Close to the palace is a garden surrounded on 

 all sides by water, so that any one in a boat may 

 wander to and fro among the fruit-groves with 

 great pleasure to himself. There you will find 

 various trees and herbs, labyrinths made with 

 great pains, a fountain of springing water, of 

 white marble ; columns, too, and pyramids 

 placed about the garden — some of wood, some 

 of stone. We were afterwards taken to the 

 garden-house by the gardener, and saw in the 

 ground floor, which is circular in shape, twelve 

 figures of Roman emperors in white marble, 

 and a table of Lydian stone. The sides of the 

 upper floor are surrounded by lead tanks, into 

 which water is brought by pipes, so that fish 

 can be kept in them, and in summer-time one 

 can wash there in cold water. In a banqueting- 

 room close to this room, and joined to it by a little 

 bridge, there was an oval table of red marble." 

 In an account written by Frederick, Duke of 

 Wiirzburg, in 1592, this table is described as of 

 black touchstone 14 spans long, 7 spans wide, and 

 I span thick. Peck, in his Desiderata Curiosa^ 

 says of these gardens, " One might walk two myJe 

 in the walkes before he camiC to their ends." 



Gardens such as these were plainly inspired 

 by Italian examples,^ and the Italian Renais- 

 sance garden was a close copy of the description 



^ Here again a distinction must be drawn between the earlier Italian 

 garden, such as that described in the text, and the later examples, such 

 as those of the Villa d'Este. 



