A lovesome thing
Anthony Huxley
Medieval English Gardens Teresa McLean (Collins pp.320, £12.50) The Cottage Garden Anne Scott-James (Allen Lane pp.267, £9.95) In many ways the medieval scene is less familiar to us than that of ancient Greece or IkcHne. The documentation is less readily available, it is fragmented and much less ecanprehensive. Medieval gardening has lertainlY been skated over rather cursorily Y most garden historians, who mainly represent it as confined to monasteries and e‘astles in what one author describes as x,ebaotic centuries'. By contrast, Teresa NcLean gives us a picture of life going on in ta,91liet and continuous way, and gardening e,log carried on not only in religious and tr,Illitary centres but, as 'chaos' declined, , ma palaces, manor houses and in s'0Wri5, where the large gardens of the rich hod out among the narrow tack-sides' or ack-yards of the less affluent. Indeed, f"erhaps she ignores external history a little much, but in explaining the gardening 'ttnie certainly gives a fascinating account of arlY aspects of daily life and of the people Involved. „ Monasteries, where undoubtedly hortiqdtural practices and prized plants were preserved in times of external stress, had to produce plants for food, wine and beer, and for medicine, and their lands included fish 'stews' connected with complex irrigation systems, sometimes 'coney gardens' where rabbits bred, and usually beehives. In contrast, no castle garden could hope to provide for the retainers. It was much more a place of pleasure, an accessory to the ladies' bowers. But the estates of palaces and aristocrats, less bounded by defence, could include parks and, within the garden walls, produce gardens, orchards, wooded 'pleasaunces' and much-ornamented enclosures with pools and fountains. Well-to-do gardens always had a mass of stone, wood and metal work, raised mounds and walks: they had to be built before being planted.
The latter part of this book discusses the different plants grown — the fruits, cereals, vegetables, vines and, above all, the multipurpose herbs. Few plants were grown which did not have a purpose, and the account of their uses is fascinating. This is true even of the rose and lily, but it seems clear that flowers were greatly appreciated in their own right. It is the detail in this book, with its ample quotations from contemporary documents and poetry, which makes it so engrossing. This leads to some overlap between the chapters, but it is the only criticism I have of a text which wonderfully brings to life the medieval garden and those who cultivated it.
One area still bemuses me: the 'love gardens'. The author treats them very much as of religious origin, and ends up speculating if they are fact or fiction. There are contemporary illustrations which suggest they did exist and were used for physical as well as courtly dalliance. There are also some medieval illustrations which show aristocratic people of both sexes bathing communally, naked, surrounded by retainers plying them with food, drink and music. Perhaps this only happened in southern Europe and is therefore outside the author's English brief, but it has always baffled me in moral terms!
It must have been difficult for this author not to tread in the footsteps of Sir Frank Crisp, whose account, and unsurpassed collection of illustrations, of medieval gardens were published after his death by his daughter in 1924. The present book, the first on the subject since, is quite different, relying as it does on hard-researched detail. Alas, it is different in its illustrations as well — a mere 28, mostly contemporary but including two inexcusably bad photographs of wild plants. At the price, the publishers could surely have afforded more.
Did the country peasants have gardens in medieval times? Teresa McLean scarcely touches on this question, and in introducing The Cottage Garden Anne Scott-James suggests that cottage gardens are not of peasant origin but derive from the plots of small farmers and husbandmen, local craftsmen, and also from those of town artisans, those indeed who cultivated the tack-sides'. Any private peasant plot would much more likely have been given up to poultry, perhaps a pig and a couple of sheep, a privy, dunghill and, at best, a patch of vegetables and herbs, like the widow's yard in Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale.
The early cottage garden is far worse documented than the medieval garden. Not until the 18th century does any light begin to shine on the subject. It is clear that, during the life of Oliver Goldsmith, many villagers were deprived by landowners of their homes, 'neat gardens and well cultivated fields'. But others benefitted from more philanthropic landlords, and many cottage gardens were undoubtedly able to provide most of the food their families needed. Utility is still the keynote; slowly improving social conditions brought the cottage garden more in line with its present-day image —a close-packed array of 'homely' flowers, disposed without formality. Some modern historians have seen this 'idyllic' type of cottage garden as a myth propagated by such writer-gardeners as Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West, but Miss Scott-James proves conclusively that they are — as indeed one would expect — the outcome of a long tradition which has been described as the only truly British native style of gardening.
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