Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...

UNDER ELIZABETH 119
II
Elizabeth loved to walk in her gardens, and
foreigners who visited Hampton Court noted their
number and size, and the quaintness with which the
flowers and shrubs were trained and clipped. The
parks, which her father had increased, she delighted
in;there she hunted and gave hunting to the foreign
princes who were her guests. Gardens stretched to
Kingston,1 and the parks extended north and east for
miles. A German traveller observed with astonishment
the arrangement of the ponds: — "The surrounding
land is well arranged in gardens and ponds.
The latter may at pleasure2 be left dry or filled with
water, and fish then let in. Inever before saw the
like of them."3
Throughout all the gardening of this period, the
characteristic excellence is to be found in symmetry,
and everything is precisely planned and designed.
Straight walks surround geometrical flower-beds;
mounds or ponds form a centre to which the walks
converge. Bacon's essay on gardens is a picture of
elaboration, where the chief garden is surrounded
by a hedge which is clipped after a most complete
and artificial fashion. Gradually the garden was
1 Journey of Leopold von Wedel. " Royal Historical Society's
Transactions," N.S., vol. ix.p. 250.
2
Dr. Gottfried vonBiilow writes "at leisure." Iventure to alter
conjecturally.
3 Journey ofLeopoldvon Wedel, as above,p. 228.