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

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HAMPTON COURT
Defoe states was "devised by the King himself."1
" Especially," he says, " the amendments and alterations
were made by the King or the Queen's special
command, or both; for their Majesties agreed so well
in their fancies, and had both so good a judgment in
the just proportion of things which are the principal
beauties of a garden, that it may be said they both
ordered everything that was done." They effected
a revolution in the appearance of the garden and park.
Everywhere appeared borders and hedges of box, the
great feature of Dutch gardening, which endured,
indeed, only so long as the Dutch king ruled, for
Queen Anne, who was little of a gardener herself,
took pleasure in immediately rooting up most of the
memorials of her brother-in-law's taste.
Throughout the reigns of the two sovereigns the
work was carried on con amore, but two special
periods of activity seem to be noticeable: the beginning
of the reign, when George London was
appointed royal gardener, with a post also in the
Queen's household, and the year 1699-1700, when
William took in hand the reconstruction of the entire
palace and all that belonged to it. Gardening was
now become a serious business. Great firms of gardeners
directed the designs of the great houses
throughout the country. " Gardening," said a literary
gardener, " advanced to its highest meridian." The
1 Considerablecaution is necessary in usingany work ofDefoe, and
evenhis "Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain" is not
historically correct;but in this case, thoughincorrect in somepoints,
some part at leastof his statement may bereceived.