# Tudor Garden Styles
-
The Knot Garden
-
Among the Tudor gardening innovations, the most important was the knot garden -- box hedges set into elaborate patterns that were meant to be viewed from the garden's raised walks or from an upper-story window. Flowers, shrubs or herbs were placed between the hedges. Excellent reconstructed examples of this style can still be seen at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire and Hampton Court Palace near London. Copying the Italian style, many wealthy landowners also added sundials and classical-style statues to their gardens.
The Influence of Fontainebleau
-
The Renaissance gardens within the courtyards and grounds of the Chateau de Fontainebleau in France, begun in 1528, also proved a powerful influence on English gardens. Much impressed with the French court's gardens, King Henry VIII in 1532 ordered the development of his royal Privy Garden, Mount Garden and Pond Garden to be made in the Fontainebleau style. At his manor house Theobalds in Hertfordshire, the wealthy landowner William Cecil also modeled his formal garden after Fontainebleau.
Thornbury Castle
-
In Avon, there are three more excellent examples of knot gardens developed by Henry VIII: the gardens at Thornbury Castle, Horton Court and Acton Court. The greatest were the gardens of Thornbury, which sat within a series of courtyards. It is likely that the main garden of Thornbury Castle was a knot garden, surrounded by embattled walls, as was the second garden. The third was an orchard of fruit trees and rose bushes, with walks and galleries lined with whitethorn and hazel.
Horton Court
-
The gardens of Horton Court show an obvious Italian Renaissance, rather than French, influence. Much of Horton Court was built by William Knight, a royal ambassador who often visited the gardens and palaces of Rome during the 1520s. Knight's gardens included a loggia (an open air hall or gallery). The loggia's six bays were fronted by four centered arches featuring four medallions of Roman emperors on the interior wall. Linked to the loggia was a series of six rectangular terraces on different levels, defined by stone walls or grassy areas.
-
