Garden Sculpture & Fountains added much to the decorative effect of the Roman garden. Carved balustrades, benches, tables, bas-reliefs, and statuary were considered the most important part of many gardens, and were beautifully designed.
Garden Statues and Fountains in Monasteries
Monasteries with dramatic gardens, adorned with garden statues and water fountains, flourished throughout Europe in the first half of the first millennium, and along with cross, monks carried the plough.
Arbors in English Tudor Gardens
Every Tudor garden contained one or more arbors.
British Gardens during the Roman Years
To get a good picture of Romano-British gardens of antiquity, we must consider their prototypes in Italy. Horticulture in primitive Italy, as in other countries, was at its beginning merely intended for practical purposes.
Decorative Gardens and Garden Fountains of the Cistercians
The Cistercians, following in the footsteps of the Benedictines, did much to further the progress of horticulture and decorative gardens on the continent and in England. Their monasteries, lush with flowing water from large fountains and dramatic statuary, stood in contrast to those gardens as conspicuously bare of decoration as those of the Benedictines.
English Gardens during the Reign of Edward I
The reign of Edward I allowed landowners to turn their attention to something other than defense and safety. As within the castle the wealthy lord sought to embellish the great hall, which often took the place of the ancient keep, with fine tapestry, richly carved furniture, magnificently carved garden statuary, large functional and ornate garden fountains, so outside as well he strove to decorate the gardens with fountains, arbors, and perhaps a maze.
English Gardens of the 17th Century
English gardens had degenerated into meaningless repetitions of French and Dutch fashions by the end of the seventeenth century.
English Pleasure Gardens
Above all, the pleasure garden was intended for the diversion of the chatelaine. As early as 1250 we learn from a contemporary record that Henry III, to gratify Eleanor of Provence, ordered his bailiff at Woodstock “to make round about the garden of our Queen two walls good and high with fountains so that no one can enter, with a well-ordered herbary befitting her position, near our garden pond, where the said Queen may roam about freely.”
English Tudor Gardens
The Tudor garden was a homely enclosure, like the living room in a simple house containing few, but good-sized, apartments.
Fishponds and Fountains in English Pleasure Gardens
As the cultivated ground of estates grew in size, it gradually came to be divided into compartments. These subdivisions were usually formed of latticework with square or diamond-shaped apertures, more or less ornamental as during the classic era.