CHAPTER V. 



" Sure gates, sweete gardens, stalely galleries 

 Wrought with faire pillowes and fine imageries ; 

 Ail those (O pitie !) now are turned to dust 

 And overgrowne with black oblivious rust." 



Spenser, Ruins of Time. 



'T^OWARDS the end of the fifteenth century fresh influences 

 were brought to bear on the national hfe, and numerous 

 changes set in. The marriage of Edward the Fourth's sister with 

 the Duke of Burgundy, and through that alhance the increased 

 intercourse with Flanders, led to many alterations in social life. 

 The comparative peace which followed the termination of the 

 Wars of the Roses encouraged a new style of domestic archi- 

 tecture, and comfortable red brick houses succeeded the old 

 castles. The gardens were no longer of necessity confined 

 within the embattled castle walls. The houses in the new style 

 were not built on the tops of hills, but usually on lower lying 

 ground, and were surrounded by a moat. There was some little 

 space within the moat devoted to a garden, or a few plants were 

 placed in the courtyard. The prolonged peace diminished the 

 necessity of keeping all property within the protecting lines of 

 the moat, and thus the custom came in of having gardens beyond 

 it. With this additional space — for there was frequently more 

 room inside the moat than there had been within castle walls, 

 even if the garden were not made outside — there was more scope 

 for play of fancy, and before long several changes in design 

 came in. 



One of the first innovations was the railed bed — flower-beds 



