SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
165 
away the years of inaction and waiting until the Restoration. 
He took up gardening not only as a pastime, but really gave 
his brains to it, as well as his time, and made himself a thorough 
master of the art, as further notes from his pen show. Another 
Royalist who has always been recognized as one of the greatest 
patrons of gardening was Lord Capel, son of the Lord Cap el 
who was beheaded in 1648. He was created Earl of Essex 
in 1661, and died in the Tower in 1683. He made the garden 
at Cassiobury, which is frequently referred to as one of the 
most beautiful gardens of the seventeenth century. His 
brother, Sir Henry Capel, was also a gardener, and introduced 
“ several sorts of fruits from France/’ 1 He had a garden at 
Kew; in it were “ curious greens ” ; it was “ as well kept as any 
about London,” and his “ flowers and fruits ” were “ of the 
best.” 2 Sir Henry was created Baron Capel of Tewkesbury 
in 1692, hence there is apt to be some confusion in the various 
allusions to Lord Capel, as both were gardeners. The Earl of 
Essex seems to have confided the chief care of his gardens to 
Cooke, a celebrated gardener and author of a work on fruit- 
trees, though, as Evelyn remarks, 3 “ no man has been more 
industrious than this noble Lord in planting about his seate 
adorn’d with walkes, ponds, and other rural elegancies. . . . 
The gardens at Cassiobury are very rare, and cannot be other¬ 
wise, having so skilful an artist to govern them as Mr. Cooke, 
who is, as to the mechanical part, not ignorant in mathe¬ 
matics, and pretends to astrology.” Sir Henry does not 
appear to have had such assistance : “his garden has the 
choicest fruit of any plantation in England, as he is the most 
industrious and understanding in it.” 4 
Another distinguished Royalist and gardener was John 
Evelyn. His great work on Forest trees does not really come 
within the scope of this work. It was written for the Royal 
Society (of which Evelyn was one of the first Fellows) with the 
idea of giving practical assistance in the planting of trees in 
parks, woods, and forests, and went far beyond the narrow limits 
of a garden. But gardens are incidentally referred to-, as the 
1 Switzer, Ichnographia Rustic a, 1718. 
2 Gibson, Gardens about London, 1691. 
3 Evelyn's Diary. 4 Ibid. 
