AUSTERE PURITAN GARDENS 103 



the largest and best, "more after the modern Taste 

 all Sashd and pretty well ornamented haveing yards 

 and Gardens adjo)ming also." Outside the town, at 

 Milton, was the country seat of Mr. Edmund Quincy; 

 and a description of this affords almost the first ref- 

 erence made to any other than the kitchen garden. 

 The house was of brick; thirty feet distant from it was 

 ■"a Beautiful canal, which is supplied by a Brook, 

 ■which is well stockt with Fine Silver Eels, we caught 

 a fine parcell and carried them home and had them 

 drest for supper, the House has a Beautyfull Pleasure 

 ground adjoyning it, and on the back part the Build- 

 ing is a Beautyfull orchard with fine fruit Trees." To- 

 ward the end of the century another description says 

 that Boston's dwellings have an advantage over those 

 of most cities with respect to garden spots, for prac- 

 tically every house has one, "in which vegetables and 

 flowers are raised, in some fruit trees are planted: 

 and what is still more intrinsically good and valuable, 

 the inhabitant is supplied with pure wholesome water 

 from a well in his own dooryard." 



The gardens of New England gradually developed 

 into something a little more like definite form and 

 beauty about this time, although the old Puritan in- 

 fluence always operated against the magnificence 

 which prevailed elsewhere. Dooryards in the town 

 were literally just "dooryards" — tiny enclosures be- 



