210 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



gardener to the Queen Dowager at Somerset House ; and Field, 

 gardener to the Earl of Bedford, at Bedford House, in the 

 Strand." 1 These partners designed the gardens at Longleat. 

 " The four took it in turns to go down to lay out " z the grounds. 

 Lucre and Field died, then Cook retired, and London took 

 Henry Wise into partnership. Johnson 3 says this occurred in 

 1694, but Gibson in 1691 describes the nursery as " Brompton 

 Park garden, belonging to Mr. London and Mr. Wise." So it 

 does not seem as if the original four were many years together. 

 These two gardeners became very famous, not only for their 

 horticulture at Brompton, but for the gardens they designed all 

 over the kingdom. London was made Superintendent of the 

 Royal Gardens, and a Page of the Backstairs to Queen Mary. 

 Besides the work they did for the King at Kensington, they 

 carried out considerable alterations at Hampton Court. One 

 rather strange piece of work undertaken there was the trans- 

 planting of one of the rows of lime-trees which formed the 

 avenue by the semicircular canal. The trees on the northern 

 bank were taken up and replanted on the south of what had 

 been the most southern row. " Four hundred and three large 

 lime trees y e dimensions of them from 4 6 in to 3 ft , the charge 

 of taking up these trees, bringing them to the place, digging 

 holes of 10 or 12 feet diameter, carting 5 loades of earth to each 

 tree one with another, with all charges 10s. per tree, £201. 10." 

 This removal took place some thirty years after the trees had 

 been planted. 4 Other changes were made in the " Mount 

 Garden " and the " Privy Garden," " Queen Mary's Bower," 

 of pleached elms, was planted, the old orchard turned into a 

 wilderness, the terrace along the river was made, and probably 

 the maze was laid out about the same time. Wise also planned 

 the " Broad walk " which runs all along the front of the palace 

 between it and the fountain garden. 5 Blenheim Garden was 

 another of their great undertakings, and they were three years 

 in finishing it. A fine specimen of their style is still to be 



1 Switzer, Ichnographia rustica, 1718. 2 Ibid. 



3 History of English Gardening, 1829, p. 123. * See p. 189. 



6 In the estimate for the work, the walk was to cost £650 13s., and the 

 turfing of the sides and planting and making the borders £490 10s. and 

 £210 respectively {Treasury Papers, lxiii., 48, etc.). 



