302 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 14, 1860. 
ENGLISH FLO WEE GAEDENING IN THE FIFTEENTH AND 
SIXTEENTH CENTUEIES. 
(Continued from page 290.) 
A century later than the period we considered in our last num¬ 
ber showed a marked improvement in the attention and taste, iu 
garden arrangements, however opposed to modern ideas of beauty. 
Our nobility still dwelt in castles, and these retained the usual 
defences of moats, drawbridges, &c. This was especially the case 
the nearer they approached to the Scotch or Welch borders ; in 
the vicinity of London, villas and palaces had long since sprung 
up. Those which retained all the customary fortifications had 
gardens within the moat, as well as without, for the orchard 
mentioned by Leland, in 1540, as existing at Wreshill Castle, 
near Howdeu, in Yorkshire, evidently partook of the nature of 
pleasure-grounds. “The gardens within the mote, and the 
orchards without, were exceeding fair. And yn the orchardes, 
were mountes, opere topiorio, writhen about with degrees like 
the turnings in cokil shelles, to come to the top without payn.” 
(Lelands Itinerary , page 60.) King James I. of Scotland, who 
was confined for some years as prisoner in Windsor Castle, early 
in the fifteenth century, gives us in a poetical effusion a de¬ 
scription of its garden, which similarly intimates to us that it 
was of contracted space and formal adornments. 
“ Now was there maicle fast by the touris wall 
A Garden faire, and in the corneris set 
An herbere grene, with wandis long and small 
Kailit about, and so with treeis set 
Was all the place, and hawthorn hedges knet, 
That lyl'e was now, walkyng there for bye 
That tnyght within scarce any wight esp’ye. 
So thick the bewis and the leves grene 
Beschudit all, the alleyes all that there were. 
And myddis every herbere might be sene 
The scharpe green swete jenepere, 
Growing so fair with branches here and there, 
That as it semyt to a lyfc without, 
The bewis spred the herbere all about.” 
(The Quair by Janies I., Edited by Lord Woodhouselce.) 
The contracted size of our pleasure-grounds by degrees ceased 
to be their reproach, 
although their style 
retained the formal 
features which con¬ 
tinued characteristics 
of them until late in 
the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury. In the eigh¬ 
teenth year of the 
reign of Henry Till. 
(1509 — 1546) the 
gardens of his Palace 
of Nonsuch, were 
formed. 
“ The Palace,” says 
Hentzner, in 1598, 
“ is encompassed with 
parks full of deer, de¬ 
licious gardens, groves 
ornamented with trel¬ 
lis work, cabinets, of 
verdure (Summer¬ 
houses or seats cut in 
Yew?) and walks so 
embowered by trees, 
that it seems to be a 
place pitched upon by 
Pleasure herself to 
dwell in along with 
Health. In the plea¬ 
sure and artificial 
gardens are many 
columns and pyra¬ 
mids of marble; two 
fountains that spout 
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, is a very agreeable fountain, 
with Actceon turned into a stag, as he was sprinkled by the 
goddess and her nymphs, with inscriptions. Here is, besides, 
another pyramid of marble full of concealed pipes, which spirt 
upon all who come within their reach.” 
Mr. T. Hudson Turner remarking upon the same subject and 
period, notices that our ancestors seem to have been very fond 
of the green sward, and any resemblance to modern flower-beds 
is rarely seen in the illustrations of old manuscripts ; where 
flowers are represented so planted they are generally surrounded 
by a wattled fence. The annexed cut, copied from a manuscript 
of the fifteenth century, of the Homaunt de la Hose, in the 
British Museum, proves that the ordinary form of the “ erbour” 
has not undergone any change since that age, and it also shows 
how the “ seats aud banks of Camamile” or other flowers, referred 
to by Lawson, were constructed. A bank of earth appears to 
have been thrown up against the enclosure-wall, the front of it 
was then faced with brick or stone, and the mould being reduced 
to an even surface was planted according to the taste of the owner. 
Numerous illustrations in works of the fifteenth century show that 
a bowling-alley, and butts for the practice of archery, were not un¬ 
common features in gardens of that date. There is great reason to 
believe that in this century the style of gardening in England was 
considerably modified by the introduction of the Flemish modes of 
decoration, which the connexion then formed between the Courts 
of England and Burgundy would materially contribute to bring 
about. It is to this period that we may ascribe the first appear¬ 
ance of “mounts” in English gardens. This ornament was 
contrived, it. would appear, to enable persons in the orchard to 
look over the enclosure-wall, and in this respect it was analogous 
to the mound, or speculatorium, usually thrown up within the 
bailey of a Norman fortalice. When the garden happened to be 
situated in a park, and herds of deer browzed even up to its 
walls, the mount became useful as a point from whence, as honest 
Lawson observes, “ you might slioote a bucke.” These mounts 
were formed of stone, or wood “ curiously wrought within and 
without, or of earth 
covered with fruit 
trees. They were 
thrown up, as Lawson 
notes, in “divers 
corners ” of the or¬ 
chard, and were as¬ 
cended by “ stares of 
precious workman¬ 
ship.” When con¬ 
structed of wood the 
mount was often ela¬ 
borately painted in 
gaudy colours. The 
accounts of the works 
at Hampton Court in 
the time of Henry 
VIII. contain many 
curious items relative 
to the decoration of 
the mounts erected in 
the garden of that 
palace, and also of 
the expenses for 
“ anticke ” work 3 
there. At the com¬ 
mencement of the six¬ 
teenth century the 
topiary art came into 
full practice in this 
country. Lawson who 
wrote at the close of 
it, and after an ex¬ 
perience of half a cen¬ 
tury, observes, the 
lesser wood might be 
framed by the gar¬ 
dener “ to the shape of men armed in the field ready to give 
battell: or swift running greyhounds : or of well sented and 
true running hounds, to chase the deere, or hunt the hare. This 
kinde of hunting shall not waste your corne, nor much your coyne.” 
