GENTLEMEN ADVENTURERS 45 



Evidently the trials of "West Indian fruits," back 

 around 1620, had not proven altogether successful — or 

 the results were not a matter of record — else he would 

 have known whether or no olives would thrive. 



The taste in gardening which prevailed at the time 

 when gardens may be said to have been first designed 

 in Virginia, was of course a direct inheritance from 

 England; therefore it is necessary to glimpse the Eng- 

 lish gardens of the period in order to understand best 

 what this was, making due allowance for the lapse of 

 time which is always required for the passing of a 

 fashion from one continent to another. What Eng- 

 lishmen were doing with their gardens in England 

 during any given decade would be more likely to serve 

 as the pattern for Englishmen abroad in the succeed- 

 ing decade, than for those whose work was contempo- 

 rary. With this in mind, let us see what England's 

 gardens have to offer at the time of the first colonists.. 



We must go away back to the Protestant refugees 

 who poured into the Island from the Continent, while 

 Elizabeth was queen, fleeing from the persecutions 

 which assailed them there under the Inquisitorial 

 methods. These brought with them the ideas of 

 France and Holland, principally. Italy, too, may 

 have influenced some, though not to a great degree, 

 and that somewhat indirectly. Thus the gardens 

 made during Elizabeth's reign were something dis- 



