94 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND v 



well for the body as for the spirit of man," 

 Thomas Hill had already made the astounding 

 statement that the east wind is hotter than the 

 west, simply transcribing from Latin and Italian 

 writers. Both writers advise against placing 

 the house on low ground, or near moats or 

 standing water. *Lawson, however, advised 

 that the orchard should be planted on low 

 ground by a river, and this was repeatedly done 

 in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

 Great noblemen's houses, such as Wollaton, 

 Bolsover, and Hardwick, were sometimes built 

 on the tops of hills, but men of lesser means 

 seem to have liked the shelter of low-lying 

 ground, and the custom of placing the house on 

 the highest and most conspicuous part of the 

 estate was not fully established till the end of 

 the eighteenth century. 



Markham's arrangement of house and grounds 

 has been described in the second chapter, and 

 the general principle of it remained unaltered 

 till the introduction of landscape gardening. 

 In front of the house was the fore court, walled 

 in on every side, with an entrance in the centre, 

 opposite the door of the house ; on one side 

 was the base court, or bass court, as it came to 

 be called, which included all the stables and 

 farm -buildings ; on the other side were the 

 pleasure gardens, with a terrace along the side 

 of the house, as at Montacute, and at the back 

 of the house the fruit and kitchen gardens. 



