THE ELIZABETHAN FLOWER GARDEN 
97 
“ dead or rough inclosure.” He refers to the Romans for 
examples of the alternative of digging a ditch to surround the 
garden, but “ the general way ” is a “ natural inclosure,” a 
hedge of " white thorne artely laide : in a few years with 
diligence it waxeth so thicke and strong that hardly any person 
can enter into the ground, sauing by the garden-door; yet in 
sundrie garden groundes the hedges [are] framed with the 
privet-tree, although far weaker in resistance:, which at this 
day are made the stronger through yearly cutting, both aboue 
and by the sides/’ He gives a quaint method for planting a 
hedge. The gardener is to collect the berries of briar, brambles, 
white-thorne, gooseberries, and barberries, steep the seeds in a 
mixture of meal, and set them to keep until the spring, in an 
old rope, “ a long worn roape . . . being in a manner starke 
rotten/’ “ Then, in the spring, to plant the rope in two 
furrows, a foot and a half deep, and three feet apart. . . . 
The seedes thus covered with diligence shall appeare within a 
month, either more or less,” “ which in a few years will grow 
to a most strong defence of the garden or field.” These old 
gardeners had great faith in all their operations, and but rarely 
does any allusion to possible failure find a place in their works. 
Yews were much employed for hedges, but more for walks 
and shelter within the gardens, than to form the outer enclosure. 
In the larger gardens there were two or three gates in the walls, 
well designed, with handsome stone piers surmounted with balls 
or the owner’s crest, and wrought-iron gates of elaborate pat¬ 
tern ; or else there was one fine gate at the principal entrance, 
the rest being smaller and less pretentious, merely “ a planched 
gate,” 1 or “ little door.” The main principle of a garden was 
still that it should be a “ garth,” a yard, or enclosure ; the idea 
of such a thing as a practically unenclosed garden had not, 
as yet, entered men’s minds. But because the garden was 
surrounded with a high wall, and those inside wished to look 
beyond, a terrace was contrived. As in the Middle Ages an 
eminence was made within the walls as a point from which to 
look over them, so at the period now under consideration the 
restricted view from the mount did not satisfy, and to get a 
more extended range over the park beyond and the garden 
1 Measure for Measure, Act. IV., Scene i. 
7 
