the making of the english gardener 3564_01_FM_Intro_CH01.indd 1 13/07/11 8:49 AM 3564_01_FM_Intro_CH01.indd 2 13/07/11 8:49 AM the making of the English Gardener margaret willes YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN AND LONDON 3564_01_FM_Intro_CH01.indd 3 13/07/11 8:49 AM Copyright © 2011 Margaret Willes Publication was made possible by a grant from the Scouloudi Foundation in association with the Institute of Historical Research. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. For information about this and other Yale University Press publication please contact: U.S. Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.com Europe Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.co.uk Set in Arno Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Willes, Margaret. The akingm of the English gardener / Margaret Willes. â p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-300-16382-7 (alk. paper) 1. Gardens--England--History--16th century. 2. Gardeners--England--History--16th century. 3. Gardens--England--History--17th century. 4. Gardeners--England--History--17th century. I. Title. SB451.36.G7W55 2011 712.0942--dc23 2011014431 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 3564_01_FM_Intro_CH01.indd 4 13/07/11 8:49 AM Contents List of Illustrations vi Introduction – The Pattern in the Quilt 1 1 Fit for a Queen 11 2 The Men on the Ground 45 3 Strange Encounters 71 4 Spreading the Word 93 5 House and Garden 122 6 Court and Country 141 7 Curious Gardeners 168 8 The Sun and the Moon 196 9 Secrets Revealed 219 10 The Long Winter 242 Epilogue – Springtime 267 Notes 276 Select Bibliography 288 Index 293 3564_01_FM_Intro_CH01.indd 5 13/07/11 8:49 AM List of Illustrations Plates I Portrait of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, on his mule, by an unknown artist. By courtesy of the Marquess of Salisbury. II The recreated formal garden, Kenilworth Castle. Author’s photograph. III The mouth of Hell at Bomarzo. Photograph by Rory Stuart. IV Portrait of Sir George Delves and his wife(?) by an unknown artist, c. 1577. Courtesy of National Museums Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery. V The Family of Sir Thomas More by Rowland Lockey, after Hans Holbein the Younger, 1593–94. © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London. VI White hellebore from the album of Cibo. © The British Library Board. All rights reserved (Add MS 22332, fol. 96r). VII Title page of Leonhard Rauwolff’s hortus siccus. Leiden Institute. VIII Queen Elizabeth I, by Rowland Lockey, Hardwick Hall. © NTPL/John Hammond. IX Tapestry woven in wool and silk with the arms of Robert Dudley, c. 1570–85. © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London. X Dining alfresco, from the ‘friendship album’ of Gervasius Fabricius. © The British Library Board. All rights reserved (Add MS 17025, fol. 52v). XI Ladies at their needlework, from the ‘friendship album’ of Gervasius Fabricius. © The British Library Board. All rights reserved (Add MS 17025, fol. 50r). XII Title page of John Gerard’s Herball. Bodleian Library, Oxford (L.1.5 med). XIII Page from the tulip book of Pieter Cos. Wageningen UR Library. XIV The House and Garden of Llanerch Hall, Denbighshire, by an unknown artist, c. 1662–72. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, USA/The Bridgeman Art Library. XV The South Front of Newburgh Priory, by an unknown artist, late seventeenth-century. Private collection. XVI Portrait of John Tradescant the Elder, attributed to Emanuel de Critz. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. XVII Amber plum from ‘Tradescant’s Orchard’. Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS Ashmole 1461). XVIII Anemones, watercolour by Alexander Marshall, 1639–82. © The Trustees of the British Museum. XIX Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit, by Sir Nathaniel Bacon, c. 1620–25. © Tate, London 2011. 3564_01_FM_Intro_CH01.indd 6 13/07/11 8:49 AM list of illustrations vii XX Knot garden at Moseley Old Hall, Staffordshire. © NTPL/Phil Evans. XXI Plan of John Evelyn’s garden at Sayes Court. © The British Library Board. All rights reserved (Add MS 78628A). XXII Hepaticas from Emanuel Sweerts’s Florilegium, pl. 18. By permission of the President and Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford. Figures 1 Title page of L’Obel and Pena’s Stirpium Adversaria. Wellcome Library, London. 2 Title page of John Evelyn’s Sylva, 1664. © The Trustees of the British Museum. 3 ‘Rosa Electa’, engraving by William Rogers, 1590–1600. 4 Detail from The Family of Henry VIII, by an unknown artist, c. 1545. The Royal Collection © 2011 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II/The Bridgeman Art Library. 5 Detail of Westminster and the Strand from the ‘Agas’ map of London. London Metropolitan Archives. 6 Château of Wacquem, Flanders. 7 Detail of Ralph Treswell’s map of Holdenby House. Northamptonshire Record Office (Finch Hatton 272). 8 Ornamental designs for labyrinths, from Sebastian Serlio’s Tutte le Opere di Architettura. 9 Pyramus and Thisbe, from Hieronymus Tragus’s De Stirpium, 1952. By permission of the President and Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford. 10 Woodcut of Villa Lante, Bagnaia, from Descrizione di Roma Moderna, 1697. 11 Wimbledon Manor, etching by Henry Winstanley, 1678–90. © The Trustees of the British Museum. 12 Wheelbarrow from ‘Discourse of gardeninge applied to a spirituall understanding’ by ‘Mr Halle’. © The British Library Board. All rights reserved (Add MS Royal 18.C.III, fol. 9r). 13 Gardener, detail from a newel post on the Grand Staircase, Hatfield House. By courtesy of the Marquess of Salisbury. 14 Ver (Spring), engraving after Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1570. © The Trustees of the British Museum. 15 Illustrations from Richard Surflet’s Countrie Farme. Wellcome Library, London. 16 Watering pot from Cardiomorphoseos siva ex Corde desumpta Emblemata sacra by F. Pona, 1645, p. 61. 17 ‘The maner of watering with a Pumpe and Troughes in a Garden’, from Thomas Hill’s The Gardeners Labyrinth, 1577. 18 Grafting tools from Leonard Mascall’s Booke of the Art & Maner, have to plante and Graffe All Sortes of Trees, 1569. 19 Portrait of the Wentworth family, c. 1575. Courtesy of the Rt. Hon. the Earl Fitzwilliam. 20 Illustrations from Reginald Scot’s A perfite platforme of a hoppe garden, 1574. 21 ‘Herba croce’ from Cibo’s album. © The British Library Board. All rights reserved (Add MS 22332, fol. 131r). 22 Botanical garden, Leiden. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. 23 Cloves from Clusius’s Exotica. Wellcome Library, London. 24 Peppers from Clusius’s De Simplicibus medicamentis ex Occidentalis India. Wellcome Library, London. 25 Portrait of John Gerard from his herbal. Wellcome Library, London. 26 A common potatoe. Wellcome Library, London. 27 Title page of Clusius’s Rariorum Plantarum. Wellcome Library, London. 28 Narcissus from Ortus Sanitatis. Wellcome Library, London. 29 Daffodil and snowflakes from Brunfels’s Herbarium vivae eicones. Wellcome Library, London. 30 Fuchs’s portraits of his artists. Wellcome Library, London. 3564_01_FM_Intro_CH01.indd 7 13/07/11 8:49 AM viii l ist of illustrations 31 Golden rod, from William Turner’s Herbal. By permission of the President and Fellows, Magdalen College, Oxford. 32 Manuscript for L’Obel’s Stirpium Illustrationes. By permission of the President and Fellows, Magdalen College, Oxford. 33 Water lilies, from Lyte’s Historie of Plantes. By permission of the President and Fellows, Magdalen College, Oxford. 34 Title page of Peter Treveris’s The Grete Herball. By permission of the President and Fellows, Magdalen College, Oxford. 35 Octagonal canvas work panel of lily of the valley, by Bess of Hardwick. © NTPL/Robert Thrift. 36 Lily of the valley from the 1572 edition of Pier Andrea Mattioli’s Commentarii. © The British Library Board. All rights reserved (456f5, fol. 489). 37 Erecting an arbour, from Thomas Hill’s The Gardeners Labyrinth. 38 The naumachia at Elvetham, from The Honorable Entertainement gieven to the Queenes Majestie in Progresse, at Elvetham in Hampshire, 1591. 39 Mount Parnassus, from Salomon de Caus’s Les Raisons des forces mouvantes, 1615. 40 Speaking statue, from John Evelyn’s Elysium Britannicum. © The British Library Board. All rights reserved (Add MS 78342, fol. 188r). 41 Formal garden at Heidelberg. 42 Thomas Bushell’s grotto at Enstone. 43 The Capel Family, by Cornelius Johnson, c. 1639. © National Portrait Gallery, London. 44 Wilton House garden, engraving by Isaac de Caus. © The Trustees of the British Museum. 45 Broderie parterre. 46 Layout for a garden from William Lawson’s A New Orchard and Garden. Wellcome Library, London. 47 Making and planting grafts from Lawson’s New Orchard. Wellcome Library, London. 48 Saffron crocus from Crispijn de Passe’s Hortus Floridus. Wellcome Library, London. 49 Flower arrangement from G.B. Ferrari’s Flora Overo. Wellcome Library, London. 50 Title page of John Parkinson’s Paradisi in sole. Wellcome Library, London. 51 Carnations from Parkinson’s Paradisus. Wellcome Library, London. 52 Bananas from Thomas Johnson’s emended edition of Gerard’s Herball. Wellcome Library, London. 53 Title page of Parkinson’s Theatrum Botanicum. Wellcome Library, London. 54 Tobacco from L’Obel’s Stirpium adversaria. Wellcome Library, London. 55 Accommodation for silkworms, from William Stallenge’s Instructions for the increasing of mulberie trees, p. C2v. By permission of the President and Fellows, Magdalen College, Oxford. 56 Spider-worts from Parkinson’s Paradisus. Wellcome Library, London. 57 Jacob Bobart the Elder, from ‘Vertumnus’. Bodleian Library, Oxford (Gough Oxon 109).