4 
SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
battlements. In the middle of the left-hand plot 
stands a fountain, apparently of metal and marble, 
and in the right-hand plot are small lawns, in one of 
which is an orange-tree enclosed by a circular low 
railing, and at one end a fence of trellis overhung 
with flowers, and here and there peacocks sunning 
themselves. The Wars of the Roses gave little time 
for gardening ; but when matters were settled, and 
the educational movements which marked the dawn 
of the Renaissance began, the gardens once again, 
after a break of more than a thousand years, went 
back to classical models, as interpreted by the Italian 
school of the time. Thus, the gardens of the Palace 
of Nonsuch, 1539, and Theobalds, 1560, showed all 
the new ideas : flower-beds edged with low trellises ; 
topiary work of cut box and yew, whereby the 
natural growth of the trees was trained into figures 
of birds and animals, and especially of peacocks ; 
while here and there mounts were thrown up against 
the orchard or garden wall, ascended by flights of 
steps and crowned with arbours, while sometimes 
the view obtained in this manner was deemed in¬ 
sufficient, and trellised galleries extended the whole 
length of the garden. In 1575 the gardens of 
Kenilworth, which Shakespeare almost certainly 
visited, had a terrace walk twelve feet in width, 
and raised ten feet above the garden, terminating 
at either end in arbours redolent with sweetbriar 
and flowers. Beneath these, again, was a garden an 
acre or more in size, divided into four quarters by 
sanded walks, and having in the centre of each plot 
an obelisk of red porphyry with a ball at the top. 
These were planted with apple, pear, and cherry, 
while in the centre was a fountain of white marble.* 
But the Elizabethan garden was by no means strictly 
conservative. It adopted not only native customs, 
* See Blomfield’s “ Formal Garden.” 
