The _verger_, or _viridarium_, was practically a fruit garden, as it is to-day, with perhaps a generous sprinkling of flowers and aromatic plants. The _verger_ was always outside the walls, but not far from the entrance or the drawbridge crossing the moat and leading to the chateau.
It was to the _verger_, or orchard, curiously enough, that in times of peace the seigneur and his family retired after luncheon for diversion or repose.
"D illocques vieng en cest vergier Eascuns jour pour s'esbanoier."
Thus ran a couplet of the "Roman de Thèbes"; and of the hundred or more tales of chivalry in verse, which are recognized as classic, nearly all make mention of the _verger_.
It was here that young men and maidens came in springtime for the fête of flowers, when they wove chaplets and garlands, for the moyen-age had preserved the antique custom of the coiffure of flowers, that is to say hats of natural flowers, as we might call them to-day, except that modern hats seemingly call for most of the products of the barnyard and the farm in their decoration, as well as the flowers of the field.
The rose was queen among all these flowers and then came the lily and the carnation, chiefly in their simple, savage state, not the highly cultivated product of to-day. From the ballads and the love songs, one gathers that there were also violets, eglantine, daisies, pansies, forget-me-nots, and the marguerite, or _consoude_, was one of the most loved of all.
The carnation, or _oeillet_, was called _armerie_; the pansy was particularly in favour with the ladies, who embroidered it on their handkerchiefs and their girdles. Still other flowers found a place in this early horticultural catalogue, the marigold, gladiolus, stocks, lily-of-the-valley and buttercups.
Frequently the _verger_ was surrounded by a protecting wall, of more or less architectural pretense, with towers and accessories conforming to the style of the period, and decorative and utilitarian fountains, benches and seats were also common accessories.
[Illustration: _Henri IV in an Old French Garden_]
The old prints, which reproduced these early French gardens, are most curious to study, amusing even; but their point of view was often distorted as to perspective. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, perspective was almost wholly ignored in pictorial records. There was often no scale, and no depth; everything was out of proportion with everything else, and for this reason it is difficult to judge of the exact proportions of many of these early French gardens.