It is conjectured, that one of the first garden buildings was erected during this reign by Inigo Jones, at Beckett, near Farringdun. This banqueting--room is placed on a point of land, projecting into a lake, and is surrounded with a broad base, or platform, protected by a parapet wall, and shaded by the far projecting eaves of the building. It con sists of one apartment, with a cellar below ; and the cover ed platform, or base, is conjectured to be for the purpose of angling. (Dailies Barrington in .4rchceologia) Lord Keppel, and the Earl of Essex, are nit ntioned by Switzer as eminent encouragers of gardening during this reign. The latter sent his gardener, Rose, to study the much celebrated beauties of Versailles, and, on his return, he was appointed royal gardener. He produced such re markable dwarfs at Hampton Court, Carleton House, and Marlborough gardens, that London, his apprentice and suc cessot, and afterwards a nurseryman, in his Retired Garden er, published in 1697, challenges all the world to produce the like. Dairies Barrington thinks it probable, that forc ing-houses and ice-houses may have been introduced by Charles II. since, at the installation dinner, given at Windsor in April 1667, there were cherries, strawberries, and ice creams. Orangeries and green-houses had been introduc ed before, oranges having been first planted at Beddington, in Sorry, by Sir F,ancis Carew, previously to 1595, (Cam den.) And from one of Leland's poems, entitled Horti Gul. Gunthcri hyeme vernantes, we may conjecture that green houses of some sort \irk re known before his time.
Evelyn's gardens at S ryes Court, near Deptford, and at Walton in Surrey. flourished about this time. Those at Deptford are described as most boscaresque. They con tained a fine holly hedge, of which the owner was proud ; and complains in his letters to Rty and Sir Hans Sloane, that it was destroyed by the Czar and his servants, who had taken the house at Sayes Court, to be near the docks. This edifice is now a miserable workhouse; and of the garden, only the soil remains.
Little seems to have been done to the royal gardens during the short reign of James the II. His successor, Mr. Barrington informs us, gave vogue to clips yews, w th magnificent gates and rails of iron, not unfrequent in Hol land, and about this time introduced into France; and in reference to the opaque stone walls which they supplanted, called chairs voyee. (Huetiana.) The more extensive iron screens of this sort in England, next to those of Hampton Court, were formed by Switzer, at Leeswold, in Flintshire, laid ouf by that artist in a mixed style, or what is called Bridgeman's first manner; but they are far surpassed by those of the summer gardens at Petersburgh. Hampton Court being at this time the actual residence of the royal family, the gardens underwent considerable improvements. An elegant alcove and arched trellis were added at the end of one of the alleys; and four urns, placed before the prin cipal part of the house, supposed (Daises Barrington in ilrchceologia) to be the first that were thus placed in Eng land. Botany received the patronage of this king, who
most probably had acquired some knowledge and taste in that science before be left Holland. Towards the end of this century, vegetable sculpture, and embroidered par terres, were probably in their highest vogue, a conjecture confirmed by the works of Le Blond, James, Switzer, &c. published during this and the following reign. Sir Wil liam Temple's Essay on the garden of Epicurus had been previously' published. His picture of a perfect garden, is that of a flat or a gentle descent, of an oblong shape, lying in front of the house, and descended to by steps from a ter race, extending the whole length of the house. The en closure is supposed to be cultivated as a kitchen garden and orchard. Such a garden he found at Moor Park, Hert fordshire, laid out by the countess of Bedford, celebrated by Dr. Donne. Sir William describes it as " the sweetest place, I think, that I have seen in my life, before or since, at home or abroad." Lord Walpole observes on this description, that any man might form as sweet a garden, who had never been out of Holborn. It has long since been destroyed, and a beautiful lawn occupies its place, and firms on appropriate fore ground to the now highly cultivated vale, probably at that time unenclosed, but varied with scattered groups of trees and cottages, as a distance, to the garden described liy Sir William Temple, tvuuld form in its turn a landscape equal ly interesting.
Tne principal alteration of the royal gardens, mentioned by D. Bat rington, as having taken place in Queen A.,ine's time, was that of covering the parterre before the great ter race at Windsor with turf. mentions, that her majesty fi,,isiied the old gardens al Kensington, begun by King William. Wise, who had been apprentice to Rose, and succeeded him as royal gardener, turned the gravel-pits into a shrubbery, with winding walks; with which Addison was so much struck, that he compares him to an epic poet, and considers these improved pits as episodes to tne gene ral effect of the garden. Wise and London afterwards turned nurserymen and designers of gardens, in which ca pacity they were nearly in as great demand as was after wards the celebrated Brown. They made regular jourmes every summer for this purpose ; and from their nursery at Brompton, which was the first of any consequence estab lished in this country, they are said to have gained L.2000 a-year. To London and Wise succeeded Ill idgeman, who appears to have been a more chaste artist than any of his predecessors. He banished vegetable sculpture, and intro duced wild scenes and cultivated fields in Richmond Park; but he still clipt his alleys, though he left to their natural growth, the central parts of the messes which they en closed.