Add MS 78628 B

B. Plan by John Evelyn of part of the south-west portion of the garden at Sayes Court, with lists of fruit-trees planted there; Feb. 1685. Autograph. Pen and ink. Compass rose lower centre (south at top). No scale, but by comparison with the plan above, approx. 1: 342. Showing the part of the garden bounded by the west wall of the entrance courtyard of the house (left), the grass-walk (right), the home field (top) and the famous Sayes Court holly hedge and `mount walke or Terrace', which separated this part of the garden from the groves (bottom). Trees are shown pictorially, walls and gateways and the summer-house at the top of the hemispherical `bowling-green’ (the same that is depicted on the original garden plan above) in elevation.

The plan is untitled, but has been identified from a comparison with features shown on Add. MS 78629 A, references in `Directions to the Gardiner at Says-Court’, Add. MS 78349 (see below), and estate plans of Sayes Court which show the later garden in outline, by Joel Gascoigne in 1692 and John Grove in the early 18th century (British Library K. Top. XVIII.17.2, 3). When the garden was first laid out in the 1650s, the eastern half of this area of the garden was occupied by the elaborate oval parterre and the western half by the upper part of the orchard. As a result of changing fashions after the Restoration and especially after the severe winter of 1683/4, Evelyn greatly simplified the layout as shown on this plan. The main component of the new design was the large hemispherical `bowling-green’ or area of smooth lawn (also shown on the Gascoigne and Grove maps mentioned above), with the quadrants or `Triangular grounds’ on either side and the wall on the east side planted with fruit-trees. The named varieties are listed in a table which occupies the area of the bowling-green: 12 kinds of cherry; 21 varieties of pear in the quadrants, as well as apples, plums apricots, vines and figs on the walls, and underplanting including gooseberries, strawberries and violets. In the top left-hand corner is a further list of the fruit planted elsewhere in the garden: in the fountain and kitchen gardens, and on the island in the pond at the northern end of the garden. In `Directions for the Gardiner at Says-Court' in 1687, Evelyn also included lists of fruit-trees planted in several places in the garden, including the bowling-green area in 1684-1686 (Add. MS 78349, ff. 4-10).

Paper. 335 x 230mm.