THE ELIZABETHAN FLOWER GARDEN 95 



the Elizabethan era. What is meant now by a " formal " or 

 " old-fashioned " garden is one of this type ; but, as genuine 

 and unaltered Elizabethan gardens are rare, it is generally the 

 further development of the same style a hundred years later, 

 which is known as a " formal old English garden." 



The garden of this period was laid out strictly in connection 

 with the house. The architect who designed the house designed 

 the garden also. There are some drawings extant by John 

 Thorpe, one of the most celebrated architects of the time, of 

 both houses and the gardens attached to them. The garden 

 was held to be no mere adjunct to a house, or a confusion of 

 greenswards, paths, and flower-beds, but the designing of a 

 garden was supposed to require even more skill than the 

 planning of a house ; " men come to build stately sooner than 

 to garden finely ; — as if gardening were the greater perfection." 1 

 Sir Hugh Piatt's opinion 2 seems to have been the exception 

 that proves the rule, as most other writers were particular in 

 describing the correct form for a garden, but he writes : " I 

 shall not trouble the reader with any curious rules for shaping 

 and fashioning of a garden or orchard — how long, broad, or 

 high, the Beds, Hedges, or Borders should be contrived. . . . 

 Every Drawer or Embroiderer — nay (almost) each Dancing 

 Master, may pretend to such niceties ; in regard they call for 

 very small invention, and lesse learning." 



In front of the house there was usually a terrace, from 

 which the plan of the garden could be surveyed. Flights of 

 steps and broad straight walks, called " forthrights," 3 con- 

 nected the parts of the garden, as well as the garden with the 

 house. Smaller walks ran parallel with the terrace, and the 

 spaces between were filled with grass plots, mazes, or knotted 

 beds. The " forthrights " corresponded to the plan of the 

 building, while the patterns in the beds and mazes harmonized 

 with the details of the architecture. The peculiar geometric 

 tracery which surmounted so many Elizabethan houses found 



1 Bacon, Essay on Gardens. 



2 Floraes Paradise, or Garden of Eden, isted., 1608. 



3 "... Here's a maze trod indeed, 

 Through forthrights and meanders . . ."' 



Tempest, Act III., Scene 8. 



