'A Ffitt Place for Any Gentleman'?
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‘A ffitt place for any Gentleman’? GARDENS, GARDENERS AND GARDENING IN ENGLAND AND WALES, c. 1560-1660 by JILL FRANCIS A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham July 2011 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis sets out to investigate gardens, gardeners and gardening practices in early modern England, from the mid-sixteenth century when the first horticultural manuals appeared in the English language dedicated solely to the ‘Arte’ of gardening, spanning the following century to its establishment as a subject worthy of scientific and intellectual debate by the Royal Society and a leisure pursuit worthy of the genteel. The inherently ephemeral nature of the activity of gardening has resulted thus far in this important aspect of cultural life being often overlooked by historians, but detailed examination of the early gardening manuals together with evidence gleaned from contemporary gentry manuscript collections, maps, plans and drawings has provided rare insight into both the practicalities of gardening during this period as well as into the aspirations of the early modern gardener. By focusing on the ‘ordinary’ gardens of the county gentry rather than the ‘extraordinary’ gardens of the aristocracy and courtly elite, this study seeks to answer such questions as who was gardening, why they were gardening, how they were gardening and how, ultimately, they viewed the spaces they had created, offering a new perspective on the defining of status and identity in early modern society. For my Mum ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Having come to academia somewhat late in life, I have to begin by saying that the last four years have probably been amongst the most fulfilling and rewarding of my life. I feel privileged to have been offered the opportunities that I have and grateful to have been able to make the most of them. Of course, I could not have done this on my own. I wish to acknowledge first of all the generous funding that I received from the Arts and Humanities Research Council without which I would never even have been able to contemplate undertaking this course of study. Further funding from the AHRC and additional financial assistance from the College of Arts and Law Roberts Training Fund also allowed me a month-long research visit to the Huntington Library in California, an amazing experience which greatly broadened my horizons both within and outside academia. I would like to thank my friends and colleagues in the History Department at the University of Birmingham and at the Shakespeare Institute Library in Stratford upon Avon for their encouragement, support and apparent interest in what I was doing. I reserve my greatest debt of thanks for my supervisor, Richard Cust, whose insightful advice and guidance has time and time again proved invaluable. The fact that this thesis is now completed stands monument to his help and encouragement. There is one further group of people without whom this work could ever have been accomplished and that is, of course, my family. I wish to record here my thanks to my Dad, who has unwittingly helped in more ways than he will probably ever know (not least in teaching me the practicalities of gardening from the age of 3 – so he says!), to my Mum who is a constant source of inspiration even though she will never know of my late- flowering intellectual achievements and to my sons, Matthew and Jonathan, who have cheered me on from the sidelines throughout. Last, but absolutely by no means least, I must thank with all my heart my long-suffering husband Manuel, who through his constant love, support and shining example has enabled me to fulfil my aspirations and achieve my ambitions. CONTENTS List of Contents List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Conventions Introduction 1 1 Some definitions 4 2 Historiography 10 3 Methodology 17 1. Gardening Literature c.1558-1660 29 1.1 ‘The Art of Gardening’: the first gardening books 31 1.2 ‘Profits and Pleasures’ in the early modern garden: the social and 52 cultural context 1.2.1 Profit: working for the common good in Elizabethan England 53 1.2.2 Pleasure: ‘honest delight’ in the Jacobean garden 57 1.2.3 The demoralisation of pleasure: John Parkinson’s ‘Garden of Pleasant Flowers’ 62 2. The Elizabethan Garden: Changing Priorities and Practices 69 3. Seventeenth-Century Gardens: Widening Horizons 111 3.1 ‘All being the experience of forty and eight yeares labour’: Continuities 116 in gardening practice 3.2 New Aspirations: Changes in gardening practice 151 3.3 ‘A friend, a Booke and a Garden shall for the future, perfectly 193 circumscribe my utmost designes’: the Civil War years and the Interregnum 4. Networks and Exchanges 231 4.1 ‘Those that re called usually English flowers’:Commercial and non- 233 commercial exchange of native plants 4.2 ‘All sorts of Out-landish flowers’: Acquisition, trade and exchange of 255 foreign plants: cont/... 5. Status and Identity in the Early Modern Garden 287 5.1 ‘The misterie of Gardening’: who was gardening in early modern 288 England? 5.2 Redefining the Gardener? 298 5.3 Gentlemen gardeners 302 5.4 ‘A ffitt place for any Gentleman’: gardens as symbols of status and 309 identity Conclusions 321 Appendices 1.1 Bibliography of gardening literature published in English, c.1558-1660 331 1.2 Bibliography of significant related contemporary literature, c.1558-1660 336 2 The Temple Family Papers: a transcript of selected correspondence 339 3 The evidence for knot gardens in early modern England: a reappraisal 385 4 Transcript of Sir Thomas Hanmer’s essay on gardening 413 Bibliography 419 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Portrait of John Parkinson 3 2. Frontispiece from Ralph Austen’s Treatise on Fruit Trees 6 3. The House and Gardens of Llanerch, Denbighshire, c. 1662 14 4. Dunham Massey, c. 1750 16 5. The Manner of watering a Pumpe in a tubbe 19 6. Title page of Hyll’s Brief and Pleasaunte Treatise, c. 1558 29 7. Crown Imperial from Parkinson’s Paradisi in Sole 65 8. William Lawson’s Form of a Garden 71 9. A Nobleman’s Herber, c. 1485 74 10. A Herber, c. 1465 75 11. Wilton, Wiltshire, c. 1565 76 12. Palazzo et gardini di Tivoli 77 13. Jardin de Valleri 80 14. Montargis 80 15. Detail of the ‘Agas’ Map of London, c. 1561 81 16. Detail from the Copperplate Map of London, c. 1557 82 17. Clothworkers’ Hall, Mincing Lane, London 87 18. Sir Edward Darcy’s Garden, 12-14 Billiter Street, London 88 19. Mr Beastney’s garden under the City walls, Monkwell Street 89 20. Robert Wood’s garden, 4-18 Lower East Smithfield, London 89 21. Detail from The Family of Henry VIII, c. 1545 102 22. The fountain at Whitehall 103 23. Detail from the ‘Agas’ Map of London, showing the 104 fountain in the gardens at St Augustine’s Friary 24. Small garden with an arbour and ‘sitters thereunder’ 106 25. View of the Privy Garden at Richmond Palace, c. 1550 108 26. Title page from John Parkinson’s Paradisi in Sole 115 27. Nunwell House as it is today 118 28. Detail from a map of Nunwell, c. 1748 121 29. Conjectural view of Sir Thomas Temple’s Parlour Garden 125 30. Detail of the plan of John Evelyn’s garden at Sayes Court, 1653 135 31. A still from The Gardeners Labyrinth 138 32. A still from The Countrey Farme 138 33. Sir Thomas Lucy III and his family, c. 1620 143 34. La Seigneurie Gardens, Sark 159 35. Detail from and engraving of Trentham Hall 181 36. Engraving of Trentham Hall 182 37. Inigo Jones’ drawing of a fountain for Somerset House 188 38. Engraving of Ingestre Hall 190 39. Plan of Sayes Court by John Evelyn, 1653 197 40. Detail from John Evelyn’s Plan of Sayes Court showing the 200 entrance leading to the house 41. Detail from John Evelyn’s Plan of Sayes Court showing the 201 Oval Garden 42. The garden of Pierre Morin, 1649 203 43. The Oval Garden at Sayes Court 203 44. Detail from John Evelyn’s Plan of Sayes Court showing the 204 Grove, the promenade and the island 45. ‘A Rude Draght of Wotton Garden’ by John Evelyn, 1640 210 46. ‘Prospect of the old house at Wotton 1640’ by John Evelyn 210 47. ‘Prospect of Wotton Gardens and house: as altred by my Bro: 211 1646’ by John Evelyn 48. View of Wotton with the garden, grotto and environs 215 49. Wotton in Surrey as in the yeare 16[..] 215 50. ‘Wotton in Surrey, The house of Geo: Evelyn Esq’, 1653 216 51. Carnations and gilloflowers from Parkinson’s Paradisi 232 52. Detail from the ‘Agas’ Map showing Olde Streete, c. 1561 246 53. Plan of an Estate in Old Street 246 54. Detail from the Faithorne and Newcourt Map of London, c. 1643 248 55. Detail from the ‘Agas’ Map of London, showing the Minories 249 And Goodman’s Fields 56.