CHAPTER III 



MEDIAEVAL, RENAISSANCE AND TUDOR GARDENS 



ALEXANDER Alexander Neckam, the earliest Englishman to write on Gardens, was 

 NECK AM born at St Albans, 1157, being the foster-brother of Richard Cceur de Lion 



(1157-1217). fa s mo tfr er "fovit Ricardum ex mantilla dextra, sed Alexandrum fovit ex 



marnilla sua sinistra " at the age of twenty-three he became a professor at the 

 University of Paris, 1180-1186. Hurt at the pun on his name by the 

 Benedictine Abbot of St Albans " Si bonus es venias ; si nequam, nequaquam " 

 (" Come if you are good, if 'naughty , by no means ") he became an August inian 

 monk at Cirencester, and Abbot 1213. Died 1217 near Worcester and was 

 buried in Cathedral. Author of a Latin poem, " De Laudibus Divince 

 Sapientice," a metrical paraphrase of his own prose treatise " De Naturis 

 rerum " which was meant to be a manual of the scientific knowledge of 

 the time, with contemporary anecdotes and stories, Thomas Wright, M.A. 

 Preface to Neckam's Works. 



HERE the garden should be adorned with roses and lilies, the 

 turnsole (heliotrope), violets, and mandrake; there you 

 should have parsley, cost, fennel, southern-wood, coriander, sage, 

 savery, hyssop, mint, rue, ditanny, smallage, pellitory, lettuces, 

 garden-cress, and peonies. 



There should also be beds planted with onions, leeks, garlic, 

 pumpkins and shalots. The cucumber growing in its lap, the 

 drowsy poppy, the daffodil and brank-ursine (acanthus) ennoble 

 a garden. Nor are there wanting, if occasion furnish thee, pottage- 

 herbs, beets, herb-mercury, orache, sorrel and mallows. Anise, 

 mustard, white pepper and wormwood (absynth) do good service 

 to the gardenlet. 



A noble garden will give thee also medlars, quinces, warden- 

 trees, peaches, pears of St Riole, pomegranates, lemons (citron 

 apples), oranges (golden apples), almonds, dates, which are the 

 fruits of palms, and figs. I make no mention of ginger and 

 cZ) cinnamon, liquorice, and zituala, and Vtrgce Sabecz dis- 

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