Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/190

170 the tediousness and heavie load of three or four score years," was usually to the east side of the flower garden, so that the fruit trees might shelter the tender plants, while tall forest trees in their turn sheltered the fruit trees. The newly imported "apricocke" was carefully tended on the south wall with peaches and nectarines; quinces and plums were grown on the west, spread up and fastened to the walls by the help of tacks, now used for the first time. In front of the wall fruit was usually a path bordered with low trained fruit trees, cherries, gooseberries, pippins and currants—a sort of wild grape—while between the raspberries and currants the ground was "powdered with strawberries." What a joy these gardens were to our forefathers is well expressed by a contemporary writer: "A garden then so appointed as wherein aloft upon sweet shadowed walk of terrace, in heat of summer, to feel the pleasant whisking wind above or delectable coolness of the fountain spring beneath; to taste of delicious strawberries, of sweet odours, breathing from the plants, herbs and flowers; to hear such natural melodious musick and tunes of birds, to have in eye, for mirth, sometime there under springing streams, then, the woods, the waters, the deer, the