That creepeth o'er ruins old!
On right choice food are his meals, I ween,
In his cell so lone and cold.
The wall must be crumbled, the stone decay'd
To pleasure his dainty whim;
And the mouldering dust that years have made,
Is a merry meal for him.
Creeping where no life is seen,
A rare old plant is the Ivy green!
First, he stealeth on, though he wears no wings,
And a staunch old heart has he;
How closely he turneth, how close he clings,
To his friend, the huge oak tree!
And slily he traileth along the ground,
And his leaves he gently waves,
As he joyously hugs and crawleth round
The rich mould of men's graves.
Creeping where grim Death hath been,
A rare old plant is the Ivy green!
Whole ages have fled and their works decayed,
And nations have scattered been;
But the stout old ivy shall never fade
From its hale and hearty green.
The brave old plant in its lonely days
Shall fatten on the past,
For the stateliest building man can raise
Is the ivy's food at last.
Creeping on where Time has been
A rare old plant is the Ivy green!
II
_Mistletoe and Box_
THE MISTLETOE (_Viscum album_). The mistletoe, the "all-healer," is a
mysterious and mystical plant. The Greeks venerated it. Virgil gave
it to Æneas for the "Golden Bough," to guide him to the Underworld.
The Scandinavians dedicated it to their goddess of love, Freya (or
Freyja). The mistletoe is, however, more closely associated with the
Druids than with any other race. The plant was so sacred to these
strange people that it was never allowed to touch the ground. At the
New Year the Druids marched in solemn procession into the forest, and
the high priest climbed the oak-tree and, with a golden sickle, cut
the mistletoe from the branches. Other priests stood below holding a
white cloth to receive the mistletoe as it fell. The sacred plant was
dipped into water and then distributed among the people, to whom it was
supposed to bring good luck of all kinds.
Even to-day we do not like the "Mistletoe Bough" to fall. We say it is
"unlucky"; but possibly we have unconsciously inherited from our remote
ancestors a spark of reverence for the "Golden Bough."
The Welsh thought the mistletoe "pure gold," believing that it had a
connection with the golden fire of the sun; and they thought also that
the mistletoe absorbed the life of the oak-tree to which it clung.
The Church never sanctioned the mistletoe. It never appears, therefore,
among the Christmas decorations in the churches. No edicts, however,
were strong enough to banish it from the decorations of the house, and
the mistletoe bough is always a feature in the home where Christmas is
celebrated with picturesque traditions. The precise reason for hanging
up the Mistletoe Bough is lost in antiquity; but it is possible that
the particular reasons were because it has supposed miraculous powers
of healing sickness and averting misfortune, and great potency in
promoting fertility and bestowing prosperity. For hundreds of years the
mistletoe has been reverenced alike in castle, baronial hall, manor
house and farmhouse in Shakespeare's country and in the homes of rich
and poor in our own country.
Undoubtedly the idea of kissing under the Mistletoe Bough was derived
from the fact that the plant was dedicated to the Northern goddess of
love. The old saying is that the maiden who is not kissed under the
mistletoe will not be married within the coming year. The ceremony of
kissing is not properly performed unless a berry is plucked off and
given with each kiss to the maiden. When the berries are all gone the
privilege of kissing ceases.
That mistletoe grows on the oak-tree solely is a popular error. In
fact, the plant prefers the apple. Most of the English mistletoe now
comes from the apple orchards of Herefordshire. Normandy sends a great
deal of mistletoe to England and to our country. The strange parasite
is also found on the linden, poplar, and white-thorn. When once the
seed is lodged, it drives its roots deep into the branch and draws sap
and nourishment from the tree. The European variety is known as _Viscum
album_ and is much forked. In the United States the ordinary mistletoe
is known as _Phoradendron_ and grows on various hardwood trees in many
of the Southern States.
There is something curiously interesting about the mistletoe. It is not
beautiful, the leaves are irregular and often stained and broken, the
berries fall almost when looked at and the plant is stiff and woody;
yet for all that there is a peculiar quality in the greenish white and
waxy berries and the shape of the forked twig that makes us think of
divining-rods and magical words. It has a mystic fascination for us.
Shakespeare's only reference speaks of it as _baleful_: _Tamora_ says
in "Titus Andronicus":[88]
The trees, through summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe.
[88] Act II, Scene III.
BOX (_Buxus sempervirens_). Shakespeare mentions the box once--when
_Sir Toby Belch_ and _Sir Andrew Aguecheek_ and the _Clown_ are in
_Olivia's_ garden and _Maria_, running out to tell them that _Malvolio_
is coming, excitedly cries:
Get ye all three into the box-tree.[89]
[89] "Twelfth Night"; Act II, Scene V.
Every one knows how important a feature the box-bush is in English
gardens and in the old American gardens that were planted after English
models.
So fine in color, so deep and luxuriant in foliage, so dignified and
aristocratic in its atmosphere the name box is almost synonymous
with old gardens. Its acrid yet aromatic scent--most delicious after
rain--is one of its characteristics.
Greek myth consecrated the box to Pluto, and the plant was said to be
symbolical of the life in the Underworld which continues all the year.
The ancients used it to border their flower-beds, and probably the
great use of box in England comes from the Roman times. The wood was
used for delicate inlay in the days of the Renaissance and also for
making musical instruments.
Box is thought to be the assur-wood of the Bible. There is authority
for using greenery in church decoration for in Isaiah we read: "The
glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee; the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and
the box together to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make
the places of my feet glorious."[90]
[90] Chap. LX, v. 13.
To dream of box, according to the astrologers of Shakespeare's time,
signified a happy marriage, long life, and prosperity.
Box was used for decoration in the Tudor and Stuart days and succeeded
the Christmas garlands, as Herrick sings in the time of Charles I, at
Candlemas (February 2):
Down with the Rosemary and Bays,
Down with the Mistletoe,
Instead of Holly now upraise
The greener Box for show.
The Holly hitherto did sway,
Let Box now domineer
Until the dancing Easter Day
On Easter eve appear.
The youthful Box which now hath grace
Your houses to renew,
Grown old, surrender must his place
Unto the crispèd Yew.
When Yew is out, then Birch comes in,
And many flowers beside,
Both of a fresh and fragrant kin
To honor Whitsuntide.
Green rushes then and sweetest Bents,
With cooler oaken boughs
Come in for comely ornaments
To re-adorn the house.
Thus a constant succession of decorative flowers and evergreens
appeared in the houses of Old England. Every season had its appropriate
flowers, each and all emblematical. It was also the same in the Church.
An English writer remarks:
"Mindful of the Festivals which our Church prescribes, I have sought
to make these objects of floral nature the timepieces of my religious
calendar and the mementos of the hastening period of my mortality.
Thus, I can light my taper to our Virgin Mother in the blossoming of
the white Snowdrop, Which opens its flower at the time of Candlemas;
the Lady's Smock and Daffodil remind me of the Annunciation; the blue
Harebell of the Festival of St. George; the Ranunculus of the Invention
of the Cross; the Scarlet Lychnis of St. John the Baptist's day; the
White Lily of the Visitation of Our Lady; the Virgin's Bower of the
Assumption; and Michaelmas, Martinmas, Holy Rood and Christmas have all
their appropriate decorations."
PART THREE
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
THE LAY-OUT OF STATELY AND SMALL FORMAL GARDENS
I
_The Stately Garden_
BEFORE taking any steps to make a Shakespeare garden, it is essential
to study the architectural lines of the house and the conformation of
the grounds on which it is purposed to lay out the garden, or series
of gardens. If the grounds are undulating, or hilly, naturally the
gardens must be arrayed on different levels. The gardens can rise above
the house in terraces if the house stands on the side of a hill, or
beneath it; or the gardens may sink below the house, if the building
crowns the summit of an elevation. On the other hand, if the house is
erected on a flat plain, the gardens can open out like a series of
rooms partitioned off by hedges, arbors, or walls. An artistic eye and
resourceful mind will prefer to take advantage of the natural lines and
work out a plan suggested by them. With nearly every kind of house the
square garden accords, either perfectly square or longer than broad.
Frequently the small enclosed garden looks well at the side of the
house. It is essential to call in the professional gardener for advice
regarding the situation of the garden, and questions of drainage,
sunshine, and exposure to winds and sunshine; for all these matters aid
in determining the arrangement. If a series of gardens is planned, one
leading from another, it is well to consider them as outside rooms.
In this case there will be little trouble in making the lay-out. The
simplest plan is always the most effective. A very good example to
follow is the lay-out of Montacute, Somersetshire, built in 1580-1601:
"Before the house is a walled-in forecourt, and in the forecourt a
small lawn with a fountain, or pool, in the center. An entrance-gate
leads into the forecourt. Before this forecourt comes a small
antecourt, designed for the sake of dignity. On one side of the
forecourt is the base, or bass, court, surrounded by the stables,
kitchens, and other buildings; and on the other side is the ornamental
pleasure-grounds, including 'my lady's garden,' a survival of the small
enclosed castle garden, of the Middle Ages.
[Illustration: GARDEN HOUSE IN OLD ENGLISH GARDEN]
"Overlooking the garden is the Terrace--twenty or thirty feet
wide--of considerable length, and protected by a balustrade of detached
banisters, of handsome design pierced in stone. From the Terrace wide
flights of steps at either end lead to the broad sanded walks that
divide the parterre into several subdivisions, which are again divided
by narrow paths into smaller designs.
"The general shape is square, following the antique classical garden
of Pliny's time, enclosed with trellis-work, espaliers, clipped
box-hedges, statuary, fountains, vases, and pleached alleys."
The famous Nonsuch, near Ewell, in Surrey, laid out by Henry VIII
toward the end of his life, retained its appearance for more than a
hundred years; for at the time of the Parliamentary Survey (1650) it
was thus described:
"It was cut out and divided into several allies, quarters and rounds,
set about with thorn hedges; on the north side is a kitchen garden,
very commodious and surrounded with a brick wall of fourteen feet high.
On the west is a wilderness severed from the little park by a lodge,
the whole containing ten acres. In the privy garden were pyramids,
fountains and basins of marble, one of which is set round with six
lilack trees, which trees bear no fruit, but a very pleasant flower.
Before the Palace is a neat and handsome bowling-green surrounded with
a balustrade of freestone."
Hampton Court Gardens, so beautiful to-day, were very famous in Tudor
times. The old manor house was at the southwest corner of the area,
and around it Cardinal Wolsey laid out his gardens and orchards. In
1599 Henry VIII seized the estate and enlarged the gardens. Ernest Law
exclaims:
"What a truly delightful picture must these gardens have formed
with their little walks and parterres, sheltered arbors and
banquetting-houses. The largest plot was called the King's New Garden
and occupied the place called the Privy Garden. Here were the gay
parterres with gravel paths and little raised mounds with sun-dials
on them. Here was also the Pond Garden, which is still to be seen
and which, though much altered, yet retains something of its Tudor
aspect; and another, known as the Little Garden, which may, perhaps,
be identified with the enclosed space at the side of the Pond Garden.
Studded about in various parts of the gardens and orchards were
heraldic beasts on pedestals, holding vanes, or shields, bearing the
King's Arms and badges; also many brass sun-dials."
Another typical garden was that of Kenilworth, known, of course, to
Shakespeare, as it is in Warwickshire:
"His Honor's the Earl of Leicester's exquisite appointment of a
beautiful garden, an acre or more in quantity, that lieth on the north.
Whereon all along the Castle wall is reared a pleasant terrace, ten
feet high and twelve feet broad, even under foot and fresh of fine
grass, as is also the side, thereof, towards the garden, in which, by
sundry equal distances with obelisks and spheres and white bears all
of stone upon their curious bases by goodly shew, were set. To these,
two fine arbors, redolent by sweet trees and flowers, at each end, one;
the garden-plot under that, with fair alleys, green by grass, even
voided from the borders on both sides, and some (for change) with sand,
smooth and firm, pleasant to walk on, as a sea-shore when the water is
avoided. Then much gracified by due proportion of four even quarters,
in the midst of each upon a base of two feet square and high, seemingly
bordered of itself, a square pilaster rising pyramidically fifteen feet
high."
Thus Robert Laneham wrote in a letter describing the pageant at
Kenilworth in 1575.
The garden of varying ascents and descents was much admired in
Elizabethan days. Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1630), a most sensitive
critic, who wrote so beautifully of flowers, describes in his "Elements
of Architecture" a garden laid out on different levels:
"I have seen a garden for the manner perchance incomparable into which
the first access was a high walk like a terrace, from whence might be
taken a general view of the whole Plot below. From this, the Beholder,
descending many steps, was afterwards conveyed again by several
mountings and fallings to various entertainments of his scent and
sight. Every one of these diversities was as if he had been magically
transported into a new garden."
The above extracts will afford suggestions for the lay-out of fine
stately gardens. The most typical Elizabethan estates are Montacute,
Somersetshire; Longleat, Wiltshire; Hatfield, Hardwicke, Kirby,
Penshurst, Kent; and Drayton House, Northamptonshire. All of these are
models for imitation in our own country.
II
_The Small Garden_
Turning now to the small enclosed garden, first select your ground,
your design, and your flowers for borders, edging, and knots, so that
you will know the effect you wish to produce.
"Making a garden," says H. H. Thomas, "may be likened to painting a
picture. Just as the artist has before him the landscape which he is
to depict on the canvas, the gardener should have in his mind's eye
a strong impression of the kind of garden he wishes to make. There
is nothing like being methodical even in gardening, so it is best to
materialize one's ideas in the form of a rough sketch, or plan."
Show your gardener the diagram and have him stake off your garden and
beds with the greatest accuracy. Your walks, paths, and beds must be
_exact_. Next select your style of enclosure and build your brick
wall, plant your green hedge, or construct your pleached alley. Each
one has its own particular advantages and charm. The brick wall forms
a shelter for plants that love shade and a fine support for climbing
plants, especially ivy. The hedge makes a rich and distinguished wall
of living green, which can be artistically clipped; and arches can
be made through it. The pleached alley, formed of wooden trellis,
lattice-work, or rustic, or wire arches painted an attractive color,
or left in the natural wood, will, if they are covered profusely with
roses, honeysuckle, rosemary, and other roving flowers, give the effect
of the old leafy tunnels of greenery and blossoms.
III
_Soil and Seed_
Every gardener of olden times, as well as every practical worker
to-day, insists upon the necessity of digging and trenching and
preparing the soil before any seeds are sown, or cuttings planted. For
this important preparation, the advice of the best local gardener is
imperative.
Regarding seeds it is interesting to seek advice from Didymus
Mountain's "The Gardener's Labyrinth." "Every gardener and owner," he
says, "ought to be careful and diligently to foresee that the seeds
committed to the earth be neither too old, dry, thin, withered, nor
counterfeited, but rather full, new and full of juice.
"After the seeds being workmanly bestowed in the beds, the gardener's
next care must be that he diligently pull up and weed away all hurtful
and unprofitable herbs annoying the garden plants coming up."
All very sound advice, quaintly expressed. Old Didymus is even
quainter as he tells of the astrological influences:
"The daily experience is to the gardener as a schoolmaster to instruct
him how much it availeth and hindereth that seeds to be sown, plants to
be set, yea, scions to be grafted (in this or that time), having herein
regard, not to the time especially of the year, as the Sun altereth the
same, but also to the Moon's increase and wane, yea, to the sign she
occupieth, and places both about and under the earth. To the aspects
also of the other planets, whose beams and influence both quicken,
comfort, preserve and maintain, or else nip, wither, dry, consume, and
destroy by sundry means the tender seeds, plants, yea, and grafts; and
these after their property and virtue natural or accidental."
Then he goes on to say:
"To utter here the popular help against thunder, lightnings and the
dangerous hail, when the tempest approacheth through the cloud arising,
as by the loud noise of guns shot here and there, with a loud sound
of bells and such like noises which may happen, I think the same not
necessary, nor properly available to the benefit of the garden.
"The famous learned man, Archibus, which wrote unto Antiochus, King
of Syria, affirmeth that tempests shall not be harmful to plants, or
fruit, if the speckled toad, enclosed in a new earthern pot, be buried
in the middle of the garden."
A modern authority says:
"While no hard and fast rule can be made, a general practice is to
cover seeds with double their own depth of soil under glass and four
times their own depth of soil when sowing in the open ground. To
protect seeds from cats, bury several bottles up to the neck in seed
bed and put in each bottle a teaspoonful of liquid ammonia."
IV
_The Gateway_
The gate entrance was always important in Tudor times. The gate,
usually of pierced ironwork, but also of wood artistically cut into
balusters, was hung between two square piers of brick or stone, about
ten feet apart. Each pier was surmounted by a stone ball, with or
without necking, unless heraldic lions, bears, wyverns, or other
emblems of the owner were used. The piers were, as a rule, two feet
square and nine, or ten, feet to the top of the cornice. Gateways were
also set in walls, and little gates were set in hedges, or flanked by
ornamental shrubs.
V
_The Garden-House_
The garden-house was very important in Shakespeare's time. It was often
a substantial edifice, built of brick or stone, placed at the corner
of a boundary, or dividing wall, so as to afford a view of more than
one part of the garden. Sometimes two buildings were constructed, one
at each corner, as at Montacute. Another favorite position was at the
end of a long walk ending in a vista; and another was overlooking
the bowling-alley, from which visitors could watch the game. The
garden-house was often fitted with handsome woodwork and even a
fireplace. An outside staircase sometimes led to the roof.
The summer-house arbor was also often made of wooden lattice-work and
covered with vines. Sometimes it was hollowed out of the clipped hedge,
or out of a large tree properly shaped by the toparian artist. The
gazebo, built at the corner of a wall overlooking the garden within and
the road without, was also a popular kind of summer-house. The origin
of the name is still obscure. Some people say it comes from the same
root as to gaze, and refers to viewing the scenery; but there is a
suggestion of the Orient in the word. The gazebo may best be described
as a kind of wall pavilion.
VI
_The Mount_
The mount, originally intended to enable persons to look over the
enclosing wall, served both as a place to enjoy the view and as a
post of outlook in time of danger. Mounts were constructed of wood or
stone, curiously adorned within and without. They were also made in
the old barrow shape of earth and covered with grass. The top of the
mount was often adorned with a summer-house, or arbor. The mount at
Hampton Court, constructed in 1533 on a brick foundation, was the first
specimen of its day; and the arbor upon it was a very elaborate affair,
made of wooden pales and trellis-work. Sometimes the mount, instead of
being a raised and detached mound, was formed like a long bank raised
against an outer wall.
VII
_Rustic Arches_
"Rustic arches should be in keeping with the house and grounds. Firstly
they should be in keeping with the style of the house and grounds.
A white stone house with a light pillared verandah is not suited by
rustic arches: it requires to be seen through vistas made up of arches
as slender as the verandah pillars, of painted iron-work preferably,
and the most telling contrast will be arranged if there are numerous
deep evergreen shrubs.
"Rustic, or peeled oak, arches suit the modern red brick villa style of
house to perfection; the trellis arch, being neat and unpretentious,
is also in excellent taste. The old-fashioned country cottage, or the
house built to imitate it, should not have trellis-work within half
a mile. Rustic arches, or invisible ones of bent iron, are alone in
keeping. By an invisible arch, I mean one consisting of a single bend
of iron, or narrow woodwork upright with a cross bar--anything really
that is intended only to support some evergreen climber or close
grower, such as a rose that will hide the foundation at all seasons.
"Arches simply built of rustic poles are more pleasing than wire
or lattice ones in any landscape; and the roughness of the wood is
beneficial to the climbers that grow over them, affording an easy hold
for tendrils. Whether the wood is peeled, or employed with the bark
on--the latter is the more artistic method--it is an admirable plan to
wash it all over with a strong solution of some insecticide and then
give one or two coats of varnish. In most cases varnish alone is enough
to preserve the wood.
"The use of rustic wood in a garden is always safe since its appearance
cannot conflict with Nature as painted woodwork when present in excess
is sure to do. From woodcutter's yards, especially those in the heart
of the country, charming pieces of log of any size can be bought very
cheaply and whenever a tree on an estate has to be felled portions of
its trunks or branches can be turned to good account in the garden."[91]
[91] H. H. Thomas.
VIII
_Seats_
Garden seats are of so many kinds and styles that one has much latitude
in selection. Rustic seats, painted iron seats, and marble seats are
all proper; but should be selected to harmonize with the house and
general style of the garden or gardens.
IX
_Vases, Jars, and Tubs_
Marble vases, old pottery jars of simple type, and wooden tubs can be
selected for individual plants to grow in, or for fine arrangements of
ferns and other flowers. Placed at regular intervals in the garden, or
on the terrace, these simple ornaments add brightness and elegance to
the scene.
X
_Fountains_