THE ELIZABETHAN FLOWER GARDEN 99 



wide " enough for four to walk abreast," and the main walks 

 were wider still, broad and long, and covered with " gravel, 

 sand, or turf." 1 There were two kinds of walks — those in the 

 open part of the garden, with beds geometrically arranged on 

 either side, and sheltered walks laid out between high clipped 

 hedges, or between the main enclosure wall and a hedge ; there 

 were also the " covert walks," or " shade alleys," in which the 

 trees met in an arch over the path. Some of the walks were 

 turfed, and some were planted with sweet-smelling herbs. 

 " Those which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by 

 as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three — that 

 is, burnet, wild thyme, and water-mints ; therefore you are to 

 set whole alleys of them to have the pleasure when you walk 

 or tread." 2 It appears from a passage in Shakespeare, 

 1 Henry IV., Act II., Scene 4, that camomile was used in the 

 same way. Falstaff says : " For though camomile, the more 

 it is trodden on the faster it grows ; yet youth, the more it is 

 wasted, the sooner it wears." 



In contrast to this, the " closer alleys must be ever finely 

 gravelled, and no grass, because of going wet." 3 Thomas Hill 4 

 writes : " The walkes of the garden ground, the allies even 

 trodden out, and leuelled by a line, as either three or four foote 

 abroad, may cleanely be sifted ouer with riuer or sea sand, to 

 the end that showers of raine falling, may not offend the walkers 

 (at that instant) in them, by the earth cleauing or clagging to 

 their feete." Parkinson also has something to say about walks : 

 ' ' The fairer and larger your allies and walks be, the more grace 

 your garden shall have, the lesse harm the herbs and flowers 

 shall receive by passing by them that grow next unto the allies 

 sides, and the better shall your weeders cleanse both the bed 

 and the allies." 



The hedges on either side the walks were made of various 

 plants — box, yew, cypress, privet, thorne, fruit trees, roses, 

 briars, juniper, rosemary, hornbeam, cornel, " misereon," and 

 pyracantha. " Every man taketh what liketh him best, as 

 either privet alone or sweet Bryar, and whitethorn interlaced 

 together, and Roses of one, two, or more sorts placed here and 



1 Lawson, A New Orchard, 1597. 2 Bacon, Essay. 



3 Bacon, Essay. 4 Gardener's Labyrinth. 



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