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

UNDER CROMWELL 121
" upon pillars of carpenters' work ten foot high and
six foot broad," delights him. And he, too, like
More, has " in the very middle a fair Mount, with
three Ascents, and Alleys enough for four to walk
abreast, whichIwould have to be perfect circles,
without any Bulwarks or Imbossments, and the whole
Mount to be thirty foot high, and some fine BanquettingHouse,
with somechimnies neatly cast, and without
too much glass." And in fountains, too, he was
of the same mind as those who planted the gardens of
Henry and Elizabeth. "For fountains, they are a
great Beauty and Refreshment, but Pools mar all, and
make the garden unwholesome, and full of Flies and
Froggs." Bacon's garden, though he allows for a
" natural wilderness," is formal enough.
Ill
TheTudor methods,growing more elaborate as time
went on, seem to have governed the gardeners of the
first two Stewarts. The great Rebellion came as a
break in the history of English horticulture. Gardens,
like images and organs, were sometimes destroyed by
Puritan fanaticism. Cromwell, though he resided frequently
at Hampton Court, took no special care of the
gardens, beyond ordering that the water-supply created
by Charles I. in the "New" or "Longford" river
should be restored to use. A tract of the time satirises
his unpopular proceedings : — " Who will have the fine