i86 GARDENS : THEIR FORM AND DESIGN 



Near these seats is usually a circular stone table upon 

 a pedestal leg, and across it is laid a narrow strip of linen 

 or damask, upon which are spread light refreshments. 

 Perhaps the stone ornament shown at Fig. 105, which 

 exists now in an old English garden, and dates back to 

 Queen Elizabeth's time, may have been used for some 



such repast. Or 

 maybe it was a 

 flower-pot stand, 

 upon which orna- 

 mental pots were 

 grouped. It would 

 be interesting to 

 elucidate the object 

 of the decoration 

 at the back of it, 

 which looks like a 

 crown carved in 

 stone standing 

 upon a pedestal. 

 This ornament 

 would seem to be 

 one of the oldest 

 which remain in 

 England, for the stone fountains and elaborately carved 

 bathing-pools of mediaeval gardens have vanished, like- 

 wise the small narrow cement baths in which the serving 

 women washed the spoons that were used at meals. 



The fountains or cisterns were very highly decorated, 

 and had usually some figure emblematic of a saint or of 

 the Virgin Mary. The one introduced into the garden 

 in the Grimani Breviary has a dove with outspread wings 

 resting upon an orb. The Gothic roof below shelters 

 the lions' heads out of which the water gushes. It falls 

 into a stone basin of four half-circles. Then another 



Fig. 105. 



