The physical remains of gardens were for a long time ignored by the majority of British field archaeologists, being studied only by specialists. It has now become clear that such remains are widespread and often survive as earthworks where the associated house has totally disappeared. Garden earthworks will sometimes overlie and obscure those of earlier phases of occupation of the same site ; because of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII this is common on monastic sites. The large formal gardens of the earlier XVIIIth century have usually been ploughed up, but can now be traced through soil and crop-marks. Even XIXth- and XXth- centuries gardens have secrets to reveal when the designs of decorative parterres reappear in modem lawns in times of severe drought.