CHAPTER VIII 



ENGLISH GARDENS OF THE SIXTEENTH, 

 SEVENTEENTH & EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 



HE England of the Tudors was wealthier and more secure 

 than that of the Plantagenets, and it was also better 

 informed ; more in touch with the new learning which 

 had taken such hold upon the Continent ; and with 

 the beginning of the Tudor age we reach a point when 

 great changes came over English domestic architecture. 

 The destruction of the old nobility during the Wars of 

 the Roses, the magnificence of the Court, and the dissolution of the monas- 

 teries were all powerful incentives to the remarkable activity of housebuilding 

 that characterized the period. Of these three causes the dissolution of the 

 monasteries exercised the greatest influence ; for, during the three years 1536- 

 1539, nearly one-third of the land in the country changed hands, and large for- 

 tunes were quickly made. Inevitably, a large part of this land given, or granted 

 on very easy terms, to royal favourites, found its way into the market and 

 was sold at relatively low prices. The opportunity thus afforded was eagerly 

 seized by countrymen and townsmen alike. The former, landed proprietors 

 already, had amassed wealth by turning their land into sheep runs ; the 

 latter by a rapidly developing commerce. Thus a new class of landowners 

 was created, and with the possession of land came the necessity of building ; 

 for the modest granges that sufficed for the monks were quite inadequate 

 to the needs of the new owners. The mediaeval castle too, with its confined 

 garden enclosures, was eventually succeeded by the more comfortable type 

 of house, and in this development of building gardening had its share, ^hose 

 Englishmen who had travelled in Italy and France must have been struck 

 by the enormous development in Italian and French gardens, and on their 

 Return home they determined to imitate what they had seen abroad. 



As in the Dutch and German gardens of this period, _the moat often 

 enclosed an area sufficient for the formation of a fair-sized kitchen and 

 herb garden, whilst the orchards and vineyards were more usually planned 

 beyond. As the sense of security increased and the necessity of keeping 



