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

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HAMPTON COURT
divided, by the best authorities, into two parts, the
"flower-garden" and the "herb-garden." Both were
walled, both elaborately designed, but the Italian ornamentation,
the statues, fountains, dials — all works
of art in themselves — were reserved for the former.
As system began to rule supreme in the flower-garden,
a concession to man's undisciplined desires was made
in the "heath" or the "wilderness," where a wildness
which had no part in the trim order of the gardener's
scheme was allowed, though not without some
check, to exist.
The wooden figures of Henry VIII.'s day, the gaily
coloured beasts then set up, soon yielded to the more
durable decoration in stone and lead. Solidity and
permanence came more and more to be marks of
the design. Thus there sprang into existence the
" garden-houses," the " pleasure-house," " gazebo,"
" banquet-house." Sir Thomas More built him a
house in his Chelsea garden, whither he could retire
for study and prayer, and spend, if he willed, the
whole dayin seclusion. Henry VIII. had built more
than one of these at Hampton Court — one in the
" Mount " garden and one below; but later alterations
swept them away.
Bacon's picture, in its size at least, might have
been drawn for Hampton Court, with its luxury of
space, where green and heath, or " desart " and main
garden, with its alleys, might find ample room.
" Knots of figures with divers coloured earths " he
will not endure,but the "stately arched hedge," set