William Harrison's Garden as an Example of 16th Century English Garden

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the features of the English garden of the 16th century. In the center of attention is the text of the third chapter “On gardens and vegetable gardens” of William Harrison’s work “Description of England” in 1577, where he shares his arguments about what the gardens of the English — his contemporaries are. In his opinion, gardens were an important part of the life of his countrymen. They consisted of an orchard, a kitchen garden where garden and green plants were grown, spicy herbs used in cooking and in home medicine, and a flower garden. William Harrison noted that the British in their gardens grew not only local plants, but spent huge amounts of money to purchase and grow in their gardens plants that had their homeland of origin in other countries, and even continents. William Harrison believes that there are both positive and negative sides to this. On the positive side, he refers to the fact that in this way the introduction of plants occurs. And the negative side is that many local plants can be put out of use in this way. In addition, he expresses concerns that not always imported plants can be useful to local residents. William Harrison shows his awareness of how to grow different plants, although he does not consider himself a professional botanist. The author of the article believes that William Harrison himself is proud to have a garden with a variety of plants, both local and not, that his garden is a typical example of an English Renaissance garden of the late 16th century, the subject of care on the part of an English writer of the Tudor era. Although the text of the «Description of England» by William Harrison is difficult to imagine a detailed layout of his garden, to find out the exact range of his plants, to determine the presence of decorative buildings and fountains in his garden.