Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/450

430

And at a somewhat later period, Stephen Hawes, in his singular poem entitled "The Pastime of Pleasure", describes a larger and more magnificent garden. Amour arrives at the gate of the garden of La Bel Pucel, and requests the portress to conduct him to her mistress —

From the description of this "gloryous" garden that follows, we might imagine that the practice of cutting or training trees and flowers into fantastic shapes, as was done with box-trees in the last century, had prevailed among the gardeners of the fifteenth. The garden of La Bel Pucel is described as being —