THE ELIZABETHAN FLOWER GARDEN 97 



" dead or rough inclosure." He refers to the Romans for 

 examples of the alternative of digging a ditch to surround the 

 garden, but " the general way " is a " natural inclosure," a 

 hedge of " white thorne artely laide : in a few years with 

 diligence it waxeth so thicke and strong that hardly any person 

 can enter into the ground, sauing by the garden-door ; yet in 

 sundrie garden groundes the hedges [are] framed with the 

 privet-tree, although far weaker in resistance, which at this 

 day are made the stronger through yearly cutting, both aboue 

 and by the sides." He gives a quaint method for planting a 

 hedge. The gardener is to collect the berries of briar, brambles, 

 white-thorne, gooseberries, and barberries, steep the seeds in a 

 mixture of meal, and set them to keep until the spring, in an 

 old rope, " a long worn roape . . . being in a manner starke 

 rotten." " Then, in the spring, to plant the rope in two 

 furrows, a foot and a half deep, and three feet apart. . . . 

 The seedes thus covered with diligence shall appeare within a 

 month, either more or less," " which in a few years will grow 

 to a most strong defence of the garden or field." These old 

 gardeners had great faith in all their operations, and but rarely 

 does any allusion to possible failure find a place in their works. 

 Yews were much employed for hedges, but more for walks 

 and shelter within the gardens, than to form the outer enclosure. 

 In the larger gardens there were two or three gates in the walls, 

 well designed, with handsome stone piers surmounted with balls 

 or the owner's crest, and wrought-iron gates of elaborate pat- 

 tern ; or else there was one fine gate at the principal entrance, 

 the rest being smaller and less pretentious, merely " a planched 

 gate,"^ or "little door." The main principle of a garden was 

 still that it should be a " garth," a yard, or enclosure ; the idea 

 of such a thing as a practically unenclosed garden had not, 

 as yet, entered men's minds. But because the garden was 

 surrounded with a high wall, and those inside wished to look 

 beyond, a terrace was contrived. As in the Middle Ages an 

 eminence was made within the walls as a point from which to 

 look over them, so at the period now under consideration the 

 restricted view from the mount did not satisfy, and to get a 

 more extended range over the park beyond and the garden 

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



7 



