THE CHARM OF GARDENS 



Periwinkles. Lastly, and most important was the 

 Clove Pink, Orgilly-flower, a variety of Wallflower then 

 called Bee-flower. Add to this an apiary and you have 

 a complete idea of the mediaeval garden. 



Later, in the Fifteenth Century came a new feature 

 into the garden, a mound built in the centre for the view, 

 made sometimes of earth, but very often of wood 

 raised up as a platform, and having gaily carved and 

 painted stairways. These, with butts for archery, 

 and bowling-greens, and a larger variety of the old 

 kinds of flowers, showed the principal difference. 



We come now to the gardens of the Sixteen Century, 

 when flower gardening was extremely popular. Spenser 

 and the other poets are always describing the beauties 

 of flowers, and from these and old Herbals, from Bacon, 

 Shakespeare and other writers of that time, we are able 

 to see how, slowly but surely, the art of flower growing 

 had advanced. The gardens were very exact and 

 formal, and were divided in geometrical patterns, and 

 grew large " seats " of Violets, Penny Royal, and Mint 

 as well as other herbs. Above all, a new addition to the 

 mounds, archery butts and bowling-greens, was the 

 maze which had a place in every proper garden of the 

 Elizabethans. 



The first garden where flower growing was taken 

 really seriously belonged to John Parkinson, a London 

 apothecary who had a garden in Long Acre. Great 

 importance was given to smell, as is highly proper, 

 and flower gardens were bordered with Thyme, Mar- 

 joram and Lavender. Highly-scented flowers were 

 the most prized, and for this reason the prime favourite 

 the Carnation, was more grown than any other flower. 

 Of this there were fifty distinct varieties of every shape 

 and size, including the famous large Clove Pink, the 

 golden coloured Sops-in-Wine. 



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