AMONGST the rest, the pains and industry of an ancient ONE WATER (THE gentleman, Mr Adrian Gilbert, must not be forgotten: for POET') there1 hath he (much to my Lord's cost and his own pains) used (1580-1654). such a deal of intricate setting, grafting, planting, inoculating, railing, hedging, plashing, turning, winding, and returning, circular, triangular, quadrangular, orbicular, oval, and every way curiously and chargeably conceited: there hath he made walks, hedges, and arbours, of all manner of most delicate fruit-trees, planting and placing them in such admirable art-like fashions, resembling both divine and moral remembrances, as three arbours standing in a triangle, having each a recourse to a greater arbour in the midst, resembleth three in one and one in three: and he hath there planted certain walks and arbours all with fruit-trees, so pleasing and ravishing to the sense, that he calls it Paradise, in which he plays the part of a true Adamist, continually toiling and tilling. Moreover, he hath made his walks most rarely round and spacious, one walk without another (as the rinds of an onion are greatest without, and less towards the centre), and withall, the hedges betwixt each walk are so thickly set that one cannot see through from the one walk, who walks in the other: that, in conclusion, the work seems endless; and I think that in England it is not to be fellowed, or will in haste be followed.Of the Gardens at Wilton. A Moravian Minister: settled in Poland, published 'Janua Linguarum' JOHN AMOS -was invited to England: travelled in Sweden and finally settled in COMENIUS Amsterdam: author of Orbis Sensualium Pictus.' (1592-1671). 6 G ARDENING is practised for food's sake in a kitchen garden and orchard, or for pleasure's sake in a green grass-plot and an arbour. The pleacher (Topiarius) prepares a green plot of the more choice flowers and rarer plants, and adorns the garden with pleach-work; that is with pleasant walks and bowers, etc., to conclude with water-works.-'Janua Trilinguis 1 At Wilton, the seat of the Earl Pembroke. (See Illustration in Appendix.) WILLIAM IF F you looke into our gardens annexed to our houses, how HARRISON woonderfullie is their beauty increased, not onelie with (1593). floures, which Col(u)mella calleth Terrena sydera, saieng: Pingit et in varios terrestria sydera flores, and varietie of curious and costlie workmanship, but also with rare and medicinable hearbes sought up in the land within these fortie yeares: so that in comparison of this present, the ancient Gardens were but dunghils and laistowes to such as did possesse them. How art also helpeth nature, in the dailie colouring, dubling and inlarging the proportion of our floures, it is incredible to report, for so curious and cunning are our Gardeners now in these daies, that they presume to doo in maner what they list with nature, and moderate hir course in things as if they were hir superiours. It is a world also to see how manie strange hearbs, plants, and annuall fruits, are dailie brought unto us from the Indies, Americans, Taprobane Canarie Iles, and all parts of the world: the which, albeit that in respect of the constitutions of our bodies they doo not grow for us, because that God hath bestowed sufficient commodities upon everie countrie for hir owne necessitie; yet for delectation sake unto the eie, and their odoriferous savours unto the nose, they are to be cherished, and God to be glorified also in them, because they are his good gifts, and created to doo man help and service. ... For mine owne part, good reader, let me boast a little of my garden, which is but small, and the whole Area thereof little above 300 foot of ground, and yet, such hath beene my good lucke in purchase of the varietie of simples, that notwithstanding my small abilitie, there are verie neere three hundred of one sort and other conteined therein, no one of them being common or usuallie to bee had. If therefore my little plot, void of all cost in keeping, be so well furnished, what shall we thinke of those of Hampton Court, Nonesuch, Tibaults, Cobham garden, and sundrie other apperteining to diuerse citizens of London, whom I could particularlie name, if I should not seeme to offend them by such my demeanour and dealing.— The Description of England, 1577 (in Hollinshed's Chronicles). ww You may be on land, yet not in a garden. A noble plant suits not with a stubborn ground. The charges of building and making of gardens are unknown. Fear keeps the garden better than the gardener. 1640. In the knowledge of simples, wherein the manifold wisdom of God is wonderfully to be seen, one thing would be carefully observed-which is, to know what herbs may be used instead of drugs of the same nature, and to make the garden the shop; for home-bred medicines are both more easy for the parson's purse, and more familiar for all men's bodies. So, where the apothecary useth either for loosing, rhubarb, or for binding, bolearmena, the parson useth damask or white roses for the one, and plantain, shepherd's-purse, knot-grass for the other, and that with better success. As for spices, he doth not only prefer home-bred things before them, but condemns them for vanities, and so shuts them out of his family, esteeming that there is no spice comparable for herbs to rosemary, thyme, savory, mints; and for seeds to fennel and carraway-seeds. Accordingly, for salves, his wife seeks not the city, but prefers her garden and fields, before all outlandish gums. And surely hyssop, valerian, mercury, adder's tongue, yarrow, melilot, and St John's wort made into a salve, and elder, camomile, mallows, comphrey, and smallage made into a poultice, have done great and rare cures.-A Priest to the Temple; or the Country Parson, his Character and Rule of Holy Life. 1652. GEORGE HERBERT (1593-1632). |