GENTLEMEN ADVENTURERS 45 
Evidently the trials of “West Indian fruits,” back 
around 1620, had not proven altogether successful—or 
the results were not a matter of record—else he would 
have known whether or no olives would thrive. 
The taste in gardening which prevailed at the time 
when gardens may be said to have been first designed 
in Virginia, was of course a direct inheritance from 
England; therefore it is necessary to glimpse the Eng¬ 
lish gardens of the period in order to understand best 
what this was, making due allowance for the lapse of 
time which is always required for the passing of a 
fashion from one continent to another. What Eng¬ 
lishmen were doing with their gardens in England 
during any given decade would be more likely to serve 
as the pattern for Englishmen abroad in the succeed¬ 
ing decade, than for those whose work was contempo¬ 
rary. With this in mind, let us see what England’s 
gardens have to offer at the time of the first colonists. 
We must go away back to the Protestant refugees 
who poured into the Island from the Continent, while 
Elizabeth was queen, fleeing from the persecutions 
which assailed them there under the Inquisitorial 
methods. These brought with them the ideas of 
France and Holland, principally. Italy, too, may 
have influenced some, though not to a great degree, 
and that somewhat indirectly. Thus the gardens 
made during Elizabeth’s reign were something dis- 
