THE ELIZABETHAN FLOWER GARDEN 
hi 
as on December 21st, 1581, Henry Sledd, Queen Elizabeth's 
fishmonger, wrote to Sir William More offering to buy some 
carp out of his pond. He offers from I2d. to i8d. a piece, 
according to their size, and adds, “ Yf I see they be more 
worthe ... I will mend the pryse.” 1 
Of the first kind of fountain there were many examples in 
the finest gardens at the time when Bacon wrote. Frederick, 
Duke of Wurtemberg, describes the one he saw at Hampton 
Court in 1592 : 2 “In the middle of the first and principal 
court stands a splendid high and massy fountain, with an 
ingenious water-work, by which you can, if you like, make 
the water to play upon the ladies and others who are standing 
by, and give them a thorough wetting/’ Of this same fountain 
Norden wrote in 1598, “ Queen Elizabeth hathe of late caused 
a very beautiful fountaine there to be erected in the second 
court, which graceth the Pallace, and serveth to great and 
necessarie use ; the fountaine was finished in 1590, not without 
great charge.” Another of the same sort was to be seen at 
Whitehall, and is described by Hentzner, in 1596 : “A jet 
d’eau with a sundial, which, while strangers are looking at it 
a quantity of water forced by a wheel which the gardener turns 
at a distance, through a number of little pipes, plentifully 
sprinkles those that are standing round.” Hentzner also 
visited Nonsuch, and notices several fountains. In the “ privy 
gardens ” were two “ that spurt water one round the other like 
a pyramid upon which are perched small birds that stream 
water out of their bills.” In the “ Grove of Diana,” was one 
“ with Actseon turned into a stag as he was sprinkled by the 
goddess and her nymphs,” and a “ pyramid of marble full of 
concealed pipes which spurt upon all that come near.” The 
word “jet d’eau ” is usually used by contemporary writers 
for such fountains, and seems to point to their introduction 
from France. 
Other pieces of water were admitted into gardens ; like 
the trout stream running through the orchard at Littlecote, 
or the stream in the Deanery garden at Winchester, where 
1 MS. letter at Loseley, Surrey. 
2 Translation, 1602, printed in England as Seen by Foreigners, by 
Brenchley Rye, 1865. 
