96 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
its counterpart in the designs of the flower-beds. “ The 
form that men like in general is a square/’ 1 and this shape 
was chosen in preference to “an orbicular, a triangle, or an 
oblong, because it doth best agree with a man’s dwelling.” 2 
This square garden was usually enclosed by a high brick or 
stone wall; thus, to have “ a garden circummured with brick ” 3 
was common in the time of Shakespeare. The picture which 
does duty both in Thomas Hill’s Gardener s Labyrinth and in 
his Art of Gardening shows a square garden with a paling round 
it. Another illustration, which appears three times in the 
Gardener’s Labyrinth , gives a brick wall; while, in a third, 
the garden is enclosed by a hedge. The custom of covering 
the walls with rosemary was “ exceedingly common in Eng¬ 
land.” 4 At Hampton Court rosemary was “ so planted and 
nailed to the walls as to cover them entirely.” Gerard 5 and 
Parkinson both refer to the custom of planting against brick 
walls. In the North of England, according to Lawson, the 
garden walls were made of “ drie ear the,” and it was usual to 
plant “ thereon wallflowers and divers sweet-smelling plants.” 
Bacon has a more magnificent plan : “ The garden is best to 
be square, encompassed on all four sides with a stately arched 
hedge. The arches to be upon pillars of carpenter’s work, of 
some ten foot high, and six foot broad, and the spaces between 
of the same dimension with the breadth of the arch.” This 
“ fair hedge ” of Bacon’s ideal garden was to be raised upon 
a bank, set with flowers, and little turrets above the arches, 
with a space to receive “ a cage of birds " and over every 
space between the arches some other little figure, with broad 
plates of round coloured glass, gilt, for the sun to play upon.” 
It is not likely that such fantastical ornaments to a hedge were 
usual, though it reminds one of the arched arcades already 
referred to, and does not seem to be at all a new idea of Bacon’s. 
Thomas Hill 6 discusses the various modes of fencing round 
a garden. A paling of “ drie thorne ” and willow he calls a 
1 Lawson, New Orchard, 1618. 2 Parkinson. 
3 Measure for Measure, Act IV., Scene i. 
4 Hentzner's Travels, 1598. 
5 Gerard is spelt Gerarde on the engraved title of his herbal, but he 
signs the preface without the “ e.” 
6 Gardener's Labyrinth , 1608. 
