THE GARDENS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 



17 



About 1270 Jacob van Maerlant, a Flemish poet, wrote De Naturen 

 Bloeme, a treatise in verse on plants, beasts and minerals ; it is illustrated 

 by coloured drawings and claims to be based on the work of Albrecht van 

 Keulen ; it was written in thirteen books, of which three deal respectively 

 with trees, medicinal plants and herbs. 



Life in a feudal castle had much monotony, and it may easily be imagined 

 what diversion the small verger, or private garden gave to the chatelaine and 

 her ladies, who no doubt 



often found their greatest ^^B^S^^^^^S 



pleasure in carefully tend- 

 ing some little plot of 

 ground hidden away in the 

 recesses of the castle. 



Our knowledge of 

 mediaeval gardens can only 

 be acquired from casual 

 references in old chronicles 

 or from stray pictures to 

 be found in breviaries, 

 missals, and Books of the 

 Hours. Though consider- 

 able allowance must be 

 made for the fluent fancy 

 of the artists, these little 

 sketches assist us in recon- 

 structing the quaint plea- 

 saunce of the middle ages 



with its babbling, sparkling fountain, its curious seats and arbours, its low 

 wattled hedges and quaint topiary works. In the beautiful fifteenth-cen- 

 tury manuscript of the "Romance of the Rose " preserved in the British 

 Museum we find a considerable number of garden sketches. In one of 

 these (illus., p. 19) the pleasaunce is laid out with grass plots divided 

 by a fence. Here we see a variety of fruit trees and a fountain throw- 

 ing up jets of water which fall into a basin, while the chatelaine sits with 

 her music, singing to the accompaniment of a troubadour. In another 

 picture, illustrated above, a gay company of knights and ladies is seen in an 



c 



A MEDIAEVAL GARDEN SCENE. 



