THE GARDEN-CRAFT OF SHAKESPEARE 363 
tion. The triangular or three-square form is such a form also 
as is seldom chosen by any that may make another choice. 
The four-square form is the most usually accepted with all, 
and doth best agree with any man’s dwelling.” 
This was the shape of the ideal garden— 
“And whan I had a while goon, 
I saugh a gardyn right anoon, 
Full long and broad ; and every delle 
Enclosed was, and walled welle 
With high walles embatailled. 
• • • # ft 
I felle fast in a waymenting 
By which art, or by what engyne 
I might come into that gardyne ; 
But way I couthe fynd noon 
Into that gardyne for to goon. 
• • • • « 
Tho’ gan I go a fulle grete pas, 
Environyng evene in compas, 
The closing of the square walle, 
Tyl that I fonde a wiket smalle 
So shett that I ne’er myght in gon, 
And other entre was ther noon,”— Romaunt of the Rose. 
This square enclosure was bounded either by a high wall— 
“ circummured with brick,” “ with high walles embatailled,”— 
or with a thick high hedge—“ encompassed on all the four sides 
with a stately arched hedge.” These hedges were made chiefly 
of Holly or Hornbeam, and we can judge of their size by 
Evelyn’s description of his “ impregnable hedge of about 400 ft. 
in length, 9 ft. high, and 5 ft. in diameter.” Many of these 
hedges still remain in our old gardens. Within this enclosure 
the garden was accurately laid out in formal shapes, 1 with 
1 These beds (as we should now call them) were called “ tables ” or 
“ plots ”— 
“ Mark out the tables, ichon by hem selve 
Sixe foote in brede, and xii in length is beste 
To dense and make on every side honest.” 
Palladius on Husbandries i. 116. 
“Note this generally that all plots are square.”— Lawson’s New 
Orchard^ p. 60. 
