The Tudor Garden by Twigs Way

Author:Twigs Way
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Tudor Garden: 1485–1603
ISBN: 9780747813750
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

The crescent-shaped lake at Elvetham (Hampshire), depicted here in 1591, was created for a single entertainment. The shape was perhaps suggested by Elizabeth’s identification as the virgin goddess, Cynthia, often represented by a crescent moon. (From The Honourable Entertainement given to the Queene Majestie in Progresse, at Elvetham, Hampshire).

Perhaps the most inventive of water gardens was that created at Elvetham (Hampshire) for the entertainment of Elizabeth I on her visit to the owner, the Earl of Hertford, in September 1591. Inspired by the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the Earl created a crescent-shaped lake within which were three islands: one in the shape of a ship; another a ‘snail mount’; the third a fort, complete with turrets. The ‘snail-mount’ took on the role of slow Spain, whilst the ship engaged in battle on the lake. Elizabeth sat enthroned at the edge of the lake and sea gods arose from the ‘deeps’ to celebrate her triumphs. Used for only one entertainment, the lake was then abandoned. Similar entertainments were staged in the lakes and meres surrounding the castle at Kenilworth (Warwickshire) during Elizabeth’s visit to the site, and many a chain of medieval fishponds must have been hastily altered to create a more aristocratic water feature on news of the court’s intended visits. After Elizabeth’s symbolic linkage with the goddess Venus-Virgo, water became even more essential to any royal celebration.

Smaller water gardens were often associated with manor houses of the gentry, again often adapted from earlier features. Examples exist as earthworks at sites such as Kettleby (Lincolnshire), Alderton (Northamptonshire), and Eltisely (Cambridgeshire). Other garden sites were merely moated, rather than boasting more complex water features, such as the late Tudor/Jacobean site at Shelley (Suffolk).

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