98 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



within, a terrace was raised along one side of the square of the 

 wall. " I have seen a garden," says Sir Henry Wotton, " into 

 which the first access was a high walk hke a terrace, from 

 whence might be taken a general view of the whole plot below." 

 De Caux, the designer of the Earl of Pembroke's garden at 

 Wilton, made such a terrace there " for the more advantage of 

 beholding those platts."^ Another is described at Kenilworth 

 ^^ 1575 '■ Hard all along by the castle wall is reared a pleasant 

 terrace, ten feet high and twelve feet broad, even under foot, 

 and fresh of fine grass. "^ The terraces, as a rule, were wide 

 and of handsome proportions, with stone steps either at the 

 ends or in the centre, and were raised above the garden either 

 by a sloping grass bank or brick or stone wall. At Kirby, in 

 Northamptonshire, a magnificent Elizabethan house, now 

 rapidly falling into decay, all that remains of a once beautiful 

 garden, " enrich' d with a great variety of plants,"^ is a terrace 

 running the whole length of the western wall of the garden. 

 It is now planted with potatoes, and the garden it overlooked 

 is merely a meadow. The lines in Spenser's Ruins of Time 

 might have been written on this garden had he but seen it in 

 its present state : 



" Then did I see a pleasant paradize 



Full of sweete flowers and daintiest delights, 

 Such as on earth man could not more devize ; 



With pleasure's choyce to feed his cheerful sprights. 

 Since that I sawe this gardine wasted quite, 

 That where it was scarce seemed anie sight ; 

 That I, which once that beautie did beholde. 

 Could not from teares my melting eyes with-holde." 



At Drayton, another Elizabethan house in the same county 

 as Kirby, there is a wide terrace against the outer wall of the 

 garden with a summer-house at each end, as well as a terrace 

 in front of the house, and other examples exist. 



The " forthrights," or walks which formed the main lines of 

 the garden design, were " spacious and fair." Bacon describes 

 the width of the path by which the mount is to be ascended as 



^ Le Jardin de Wilton, De Caux, 1615. 



^ Robert Laneham, Letter describing the Pageants at Kenilworth 

 Castle, 1575. Extract in Praise of Gardens, Sieveking, 1885. 

 ^ Morton, Natural History of Northamptonshire, 1712. 



