FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 51 



That most like unto green wool wot I it was : 

 The hegge also that yede in compas 1 

 And closed in all the greene herbere 

 With sicamour 2 was set and eglatere. 



And shapen was this herber roofe and all 



As a pretty parlour : and also 



The hegge as thicke as a castle wall, 



That who that list without to stond or go 

 Though he would all day prien to and fro 

 He should not see if there were any wight within or no." 



This same idea of seclusion as the essential feature of an 

 arbour is evident in the fifteenth-century poem, La Belle Dame 

 Sans Merci : 3 



" And sett me down by^ynde a traile 

 Fulle of levis, to see, a grete mervaile. 

 With grene wythyes y bounden wonderlye 

 The leeves wore so thicke with-out faile 

 That thorough-oute myghte no mann me espye." 



The flowers around an arbour are described in a fourteenth- 

 century poem, entitled The Pearl : 



" I entered in that erber grene 

 In augoste in a high seysoun 



* * » * # 



Schadowed this wortes ful schyre 4 and schene 

 Gilofre, 6 gyngure, 6 & groomylyon 7 

 & pyonys powdered ay betwene." 



Each garden contained some kind of cistern for water, and in 

 many cases a fountain elaborately ornamented was placed in 

 the centre, or in some conspicuous position. The illustration 

 reproduced here shows the ordinary fountain of a good garden 

 of the day, introduced to represent Rebecca's well, and many 

 characteristic paintings of such fountains are to be found in 

 fifteenth-century MSS. 8 

 The varieties of flowers planted in these gardens were 



* =went round it. 2 = honey suckle. 



3 E. E. Text Society, vol. iv. 4 =bright. 



5 =clove-pinks. 6 =tcmsy. 



7 gromwell. 8 See B. M., 14. E. 2. f. 77. 



4-3 



