FRENCH AND ENGLISH GARDENS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

The Roman de la Rose gives the best possible idea of both the French and English gardens of its Middle Ages. It was chiefly written by Guillaume de Loris, in the first half of the thirteenth century, and was probably well known in England before it was translated through Chaucer into English. able are several manuscript copies of it containing descriptions in its text, accompanied by illustrations giving vivid pictures of the pleasure garden. Its form-the walls enclosing it with their surrounding moat, the subdivisions of latticework, the "flowery mede," shady by brood trees, with a fountain in its center, and the stone-coped beds, containing clipped shrubs and other smaller plants-are clearly shown from contrastive points of leaning.

In the most important of these illustrations (which is on its opposite page, again was enticed from the fourteenth-century Flemish manuscript preserved at the British Museum), the garden is shown because of a whole, ornamented with divers quaint details. essential is enclosed by the crenellated wall, surrounded by a moat. the subdivisions are formed by a fence of wooden trellis-work, on the topmost railing of which is balanced a peacock. In the left-hand division is a copper originator head, where its water, spouting from lions' mouths, drips into a circular basin, further runs poison through a marble channel embedded in the turf. velvety grass, thickly sprinkled with daisies, surrounds the fountain and forms a soft seat for the dwarfish company of merrymakers who are singing and playing upon musical instruments.

A garden, according to the commencement of the word from zerd, garth, or yard (three nouns from the same Aryan root as the French data Jardin), originally signified a walled but unroofed enclosure containing cultivated vegetation. Usually this surge principally consisted of herbs, grass, or fruit trees.

This enclosure licensed the vegetation from marauders, and secluded its occupants. Privacy was a exceptionally money characteristic of the garden. Inside the castle expert was scant opportunity over confidential conversation. So when people wished to talk without being disregarded or overheard, they were apt to take off to the pleasure garden.

the earliest fences were commonly wattled, that is, woven of osiers. Others, more ornamental, were formed of rails or of pickets, and painted esplanade. Hedges often included the later gardens, instead of walls. the bushes used for this purpose were privet (thus called perhaps because corporal served to insure privacy), thorn, sweetbrier, further yew. Moats were also common, the water accommodating fish and swans.More Info about;
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FISHPONDS AND FOUNTAINS IN ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS

because of the cultivated aim of estates grew in size, it progressively came to correspond to divided into compartments. These subdivisions were usually formed of latticework with verify or diamond-shaped apertures, more or less ornamental as during the classic era. There were beds since plants raised mixed bag inches above the level of the path, retained by a stone coping, and fenced in with wattles, latticework, or open wooden railings. brood trees and spices predominated, for as yet flowers were apt no especial prominence in the garden. The prime paths or alleys were covered lock up sand, and usually broad enough in that two or three people to march abreast. Narrower paths were intended to facilitate the weeding of the beds.

Resting-places were provided for those who found expressive or standing tiresome. Simple benches cushioned with home were built into embrasures or against the palisade. Earth banked up around the trunk of a tree, grassed over further held in place by wattled osiers, formed a circular seat. In the center of the garden the three-sided exedra constructed of stone or brick, covered with weed and flowers, often formed the most important feature. Arbors or bowers were wooden structures covered through shrubs and vines and oftentimes nicety a comfortable hub.

Water in various forms was always, if possible, introduced cadence the garden. Fishponds, bathing pools, and fountains were common. Usually the central and abundantly ornamental architectural feature of the pleasure garden was a fountain. The earliest

of an ornamental appearance were apparently of Oriental design.

A conundrum or labyrinth was frequently laid out connections or near the garden. An early form seems to have consisted of a prestige of underground passages, making the approach to a covert bower almost impossible to the uninitiated. miscellaneous of these mysterious underground labyrinths existed in England, the most celebrated one owing to that constructed by Henry II to conceal amenable Rosamond's bower at Woodstock. The bower, in her case, was a small stone building enclosing a well, a large enough dwelling-place for one or dual people.

Other features of the garden, also constructed during a later date, were menageries, aviaries, apiaries, and dovecotes. Birds and bees everywhere added much to the attraction of its garden. Swans swam mark the basins also moat, peacocks strutted along the alleys and perched upon top of the walls, and doves flew to and from their spacious homes. All these were served increasing as delicacies at meals.See Others
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