Few exact records of English monastic gardens have been preserved. A twelfth-century plan of Canterbury, showing the cloisters containing a herbarium, garden fountain, and a conduit; with a garden pond, orchard, and vineyard outside the walls, gives only a rough idea of the planting and arrangement. But there is no other document even this complete belonging to this early period.
Since, however, the various parts of all monasteries of the same order were as uniform as circumstances permitted, the general scheme of the English monastic gardens can be gathered from the plans and descriptions of those on the continent. The plan of the ancient monastery of St. Gall, in Switzerland, still exists, and supplies much information about the arrangement of a large religious establishment belonging to the Benedictines in the ninth century.
The monastery was placed in a valley, and the cultivated grounds within the walls consisted of four divisions: the cloister-garth, the fountains, statuary, and adornments, the vegetable garden, and a combination of orchard and burial ground. The cloister-garth was a square, planted with grass and shrubs, divided by two intersecting paths...
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