GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



There seems to have been but little change in the methods of 

 horticulture, or in the character of the gardens themselves, under 

 the Stuarts, until we arrive at the reign of Charles II. During 

 the Commonwealth little gardening was done, and the garden of 

 Evelyn's family mansion at Wotton was one of the few laid out 

 during the years of Cromwell's rule. Still, the taste for horticul- 

 ture was not altogether dormant, since even one of Cromwell's most 

 capable captains could indulge in it. General Lambert, second 

 only to Monk in distinction, who in 1656 was Lord of the Manor 

 of Wimbledon, when estranged for a time from Oliver, withdrew 

 from public life, and devoted himself to the care of his garden, of 

 which he was very fond. He was so successful in the cultivation 

 of tulips and gillyflowers, that in a satirical pack of cards published 

 during the Commonwealth, the eight of hearts bears a small full- 

 length portrait of him, carrying in his right hand a tulip, beneath 

 which is the legend, " Lambert Kt. of ye Golden Tulip." 



But by this time foreign influences were beginning to work. 

 modifying the national character of the English garden as it had 

 been under the Tudors. These influences, though not without 

 trace of Dutch formality, were probably chiefly Italian and 

 French. Later on the Dutch fashions, under William III. and 

 Mary, were dominant. But, on the whole, during the reigns of 

 James I. and Charles I. there were but few changes in the manner 

 of laying out gardens. This was to be expected ; the same 

 gardeners or their sons were living. 



' Paradise Lost " gives us a hint of the style of garden most 

 approved of in Milton's time ; elsewhere the blind poet of t he- 

 Commonwealth speaks of those who " in trim gardens take their 

 pleasure," but in his great epic he describes that wondrous 

 garden wherein grew 



" Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose." 



Horace Walpole thinks he had some recollection of the famous 

 pleasure grounds of Nonsuch, and of Theobalds, Lord Burleigh's 

 garden, when he wrote : 



" The crisped brooks 

 Ran nectar ! visiting each plant, and fed 

 Flowers worthy of Paradise ; which not nice art 

 In beds and curious knots, but nature boon 

 Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain/' 



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