96 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



its counterpart in the designs of the flower-beds. " The 

 form that men like in general is a square,"^ and this shape 

 was chosen in preference to "an orbicular, a triangle, or an 

 oblong, because it doth best agree with a man's dwelhng."^ 

 This square garden was usually enclosed by a high brick or 

 stone wall ; thus, to have " a garden circummured with brick "^ 

 was common in the time of Shakespeare. The picture which 

 does duty both in Thomas Hill's Gardener's Labyrinth and in 

 his Art of Gardening shows a square garden with a pahng round 

 it. Another illustration, which appears three times in the 

 Gardener's Labyrinth, gives a brick wall ; while, in a third, 

 the garden is enclosed by a hedge. The custom of covering 

 the walls with rosemary was " exceedingly common in Eng- 

 land."^ At Hampton Court rosemary was " so planted and 

 nailed to the walls as to cover them entirely." Gerard^ and 

 Parkinson both refer to the custom of planting against brick 

 walls. In the North of England, according to Lawson, the 

 garden walls were made of " drie earthe," and it was usual to 

 plant " thereon wallflowers and divers sweet-smelling plants." 

 Bacon has a more magnificent plan : " The garden is best to 

 be square, encompassed on all four sides with a stately arched 

 hedge. The arches to be upon pillars of carpenter's work, of 

 some ten foot high, and six foot broad, and the spaces between 

 of the same dimension with the breadth of the arch." This 

 " fair hedge " of Bacon's ideal garden was to be raised upon 

 a bank, set with flowers, and little turrets above the arches, 

 with a space to receive " a cage of birds "; " and over every 

 space between the arches some other little figure, with broad 

 plates of round coloured glass, gilt, for the sun to play upon." 

 It is not hkely that such fantastical ornaments to a hedge were 

 usual, though it reminds one of the arched arcades already 

 referred to, and does not seem to be at all a new idea of Bacon's. 

 ThomEis Hill® discusses the various modes of fencing round 

 a garden. A pahng of " drie thorne " and willow he calls a 



1 Lawson, New Orchard, 1618. - Parkinson. 



^ Measure for Measure. Act IV., Scene i. 



* Hentzner's Travels, 1598. 



^ Gerard is spelt Gcrarde on the engraved title of his herbal, but he 

 signs the preface without the " e." 



* Gardener's Labyrinth, 1608. 



