CHAPTER II 

 THE GARDENS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 



URING the dark ages that followed the downfall of the 

 Roman Empire, all taste for country life was soon extin- 

 guished. War once more became the ruling passion, and 

 in Italy agriculture fell upon bad times. In the South of 

 France the Gallo-Roman establishments did not dis- 

 appear so completely. Sidonius ApoUinaris, the Bishop 

 of Clermont, mentions several beautiful gardens of this 

 epoch, and takes pleasure in describing the delights to be found in them. 

 The wise policy of the early Church in respecting pagan customs by turning 

 them to the profit of the Christian religion was instrumental in the develop- 

 ment of horticulture and incidentally created a demand for the cultivation 

 of flowers for use at festivals. Thus the garlands which young girls used to 

 weave for the pagan festivals of the Ambarvalia, under the new regime 

 were used to adorn Rogation processions. 



The growth of monastic life also helped the progress of gardening. 

 To the monks, entirely shut off from the world, the most human and uni- 

 versal taste for gardening served well as an outlet for the expression of their 

 love of beauty, and filled a void in their lives, so debarred from all participa- 

 tion in earthly pleasures. 



The gardens of the royal villas belonging to the Merovingian dynasty 

 were not of any great importance, being little better than clearings on the 

 outskirts of forests, and the cultivation of palatial gardens does not appear 

 to have made very great progress until the ninth century, when Charle- 

 magne, having warred successfully against Saracens, Lombards and Saxons, 

 built his sumptuous palaces at Aix la Chapelle and at Ingelheim on the 

 Rhine. Besides these he had vast estates throughout the whole extent of his 



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