36 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND ii 



earlier. Dr. Andrew Borde was an eccentric 

 person of good education and abilities who was 

 born in the latter part of the fifteenth century, 

 and died in the Fleet in 1549. In the second 

 chapter of a curious little book entitled the 

 Boke for to lerne a man to be wyse in buyldyng of 

 his house for the health of his body^ e to holde 

 quyetnes for the hel'th of his soule and body^ etc., 

 Borde discusses the question of "aspecte" and 

 "prospecte." '* My con-ceyte," he says, "is 

 such, that I had rather not to buylde a mansyon 

 or a house than to buylde one without a good 

 prospect i to it i from it." The chief prospect 

 is to be east, especially north-east, for the " est 

 wynde is temperat, fryske, and fragrant." This 

 remarkable character of the east wind is repeated 

 by Hill, and was, as Markham pointed out, the 

 result of borrowing wholesale from Italian 

 writers, without either acknowledging the source 

 or correcting their statements by local experience. 

 ''Furthermore," says Borde, "it is a commodious 

 and a pleasant thing in a mansyon to have an 

 orcharde of sundrye fruytes, but it is more 

 comodyous to have a fayre garden repleatyd 

 with herbes of aromatyke and redolent savoures ; 

 in the garden may be a poole or two for fysshe, 

 yf the pooles be clene kept, also a park re- 

 pleatyd with dere and conys is a necessary and 

 a pleasant thynge " ; and the country gentle- 

 man's residence is not complete without a 

 " dove-cote, a payre of buttes for archery, and 



