16 INTRODUCTION. 



castle walls. However, gardens of consi- 

 derable extent were joined to the convents 

 and monasteries of England ; and we find that 

 the cultivation of flowers and shrubs was at-, 

 tended to by most of the religious recluses of 

 those establishments, as well as that of fruits, 

 pot-herbs, and medicinal plants. 



The citizens of London had gardens to 

 their villas as early as the time of Henry II., 

 which Fitz-Stephen tells us were " large, 

 beautiful, and planted with trees. " In 

 Cerceau's Architecture, which appeared in the 

 reign of Henry III., every ground-plot was 

 laid out with plans of labyrinths and par- 

 terres. 



The royal gardens of Nonsuch in Surrey, 

 were formed in the time of Henry VIII. 

 The privy gardens of that palace were 

 planted with flowering shrubs and fruit- 

 trees, and ornamented with basins of marble, 

 fountains, and pyramids. The gardens of 

 Hampton- Court were also planted about the 

 same period, by Cardinal Wolsey ; and from 

 that time to the present, the taste for orna- 

 mental trees and shrubs has continued to 

 increase. 



Charles II. returned from the Continent 

 with a taste completely French ; and Evelyn 

 also, from his travels through France and 



