2

the prospect and freshness of the garden. At both corners of the further side, by way of return', let there be two delicate or rich cabinets, daintily paved, richly hanged, glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich cupola in the midst; and all other elegancy that may be thought upon. In the upper gallery too, I wish that there may be, if the place will yield it, some fountains running in divers places from the wall, with some fine avoidances. And thus much for the model of the palace; save that you must have, before you come to the front, three courts. A green court plain, with a wall about it; a second court of the same, but more garnished, with little turrets, or rather embellishments, upon the wall; and a third court, to make a square with the front, but not to be built, nor yet enclosed with a naked wall, but enclosed with tarrasses, leaded aloft, and fairly garnished, on the three sides; and cloistered on the inside, with pillars, and not with arches below. As for offices, let them stand at distance, with some low galleries, to pass from them to the palace itself,

XLVI. OF GARDENS.

GOD ALMIGHTY first planted a Garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man; without which buildings and palaces are but gross handy works': and a man shall ever see that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely; as if gardening were the greater perfection. I do hold it, in the royal ordering of gardens, there ought to be gardens for all the months in the year; in which

1 ́ad angulos duos lateris transversi in solario secundo.

2 Sint autem conclavia illa rebus curiosis omnigenis et spectatu dignis referta.

3 qui per secretos tubos iterum transeant. The following sentence is inserted here in the translation: Interior autem pars in solario superiore, versus aream, formetur in porticus et ambulacra, bene munita et obducta, ad usum convalescentium.

The translation adds: nam de balneis et piscinis non loquor.

5 Area viridis, gramine vestita, cum pariete in circuitu, et juxta parietem arboribus, ordine positis, sata.

6 sed ambulacris supra columnas, non arcus, erectis; in summitate vero plumbo vel lapide quadrato coopertis, et ad latera elegantibus statuis parvis, ænei coloris, munitis

clausam.

7 manús tantum sunt opera, nec sapiunt naturam.

9 citius pervenire ad ædificiorum pulchritudinem quam ad hortorum elegantiam et amanitatem.

severally things of beauty may be then in season.' For December, and January, and the latter part of November, you must take such things as are green all winter 2: holly; ivy; bays; juniper; cypress-trees; yew; pine-apple-trees; firtrees; rosemary; lavender; periwinkle, the white, the purple, and the blue; germander; flags'; orange-trees; lemon-trees; and myrtles, if they be stoved; and sweet marjoram, warm set. There followeth, for the latter part of January and February, the mezereon-tree, which then blossoms; crocus vernus, both the yellow and the grey; primroses; anemones; the early tulippa; hyacinthus orientalis; chamaïris; fritellaria. For March, there come violets, specially the single blue, which are the earliest; the yellow daffodil; the daisy; the almond-tree in blossom; the peach-tree in blossom; the cornelian-tree in blossom; sweet-briar. In April follow, the double white violet; the wall-flower; the stock-gilliflower; the cowslip; flower-de-lices, and lilies of all natures 7; rosemary-flowers; the tulippa; the double piony; the pale daffodil; the French honeysuckle; the cherry-tree in blossom; the dammasin and plum-trees in blossom; the white thorn in leaf; the lilac-tree.

' in quibus separatim plantæ quæ illo mense florent et vigent producantur. The scene in the "Winter's Tale," where Perdita presents the guests with flowers suited to their ages, has some expressions which, if this Essay had been contained in the earlier edition, would have made me suspect that Shakespeare had been reading it. As I am not aware that the resemblance has been observed, I will quote the passages to which I allude in connexion with those which remind me of them.

2

Pol.

Reverend Sirs,

For you there's Rosemary and Rue: these keep

Seeming and savour all the winter long.
Grace and Remembrance be to you both,
And welcome to our shearing.

Shepherdess,

(A fair one are you) well you fit our ages
With flowers of winter.

In place of "pine-apple-trees," the translation has buxus, pinus, abies.
Irides quoad fɔlia.

pseudo-narcissus luteus.

7

juxta parietem et versus solem satus.

Now, my fair'st friend,

I would I had some flowers o' the Spring, that might
Become your time of day....

Daffodils,

That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty: Violets (dim
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,
Or Cytherea's breath): pale Prime-roses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength. . . .

bold Oxlips, and
The Crown Imperial: Lilies of all kinds,
(The Flover-de-Luce being one).

* narcissus verus.

In May and June come pinks of all sorts, specially the blushpink; roses of all kinds, except the musk, which comes later; honey-suckles; strawberries; bugloss; columbine; the French marigold; flos Africanus'; cherry-tree in fruit; ribes; figs in fruit; rasps; vine-flowers; lavender in flowers; the sweet satyrian, with the white flower; herba muscaria; lilium convallium; the apple-tree in blossom. In July come gilliflowers of all varieties 3; musk-roses; the lime-tree in blossom; early pears and plums in fruit; genitings, quadlins. In August come plums of all sorts in fruit; pears; apricocks; berberries; filberds; musk-melons; monks-hoods, of all colours. In September come grapes; apples; poppies of all colours; peaches; melocotones; nectarines; cornelians; wardens; quinces. In October and the beginning of November come services; medlars; bullaces; roses cut or removed to come late; hollyoaks; and such like. These particulars are for the climate of London; but my meaning is perceived, that you may have ver perpetuum, as the place affords.

And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air. Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells; so that you may walk by a whole row of them, and find nothing of their sweetness; yea though it be in a morning's dew. Bays likewise yield no smell as they grow. Rosemary little ; nor sweet majoram. That which above all others yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violet, specially the white double violet, which comes twice a year; about the middle

Flos Africanus, simplex et multiplex.

the translation.

The "French Marigold" is omitted in

2 The translation adds; flos cyaneus: [the corn-cockle].

Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram,
The Mary-gold, that goes to bed wi' the Sun,
And with him rises, weeping: These are flowers
Of middle Summer, and I think they are given
To men of middle age.

quæ adhuc crescentes, nec avulsæ, maxime emittunt auras suaves, et aërem odore

perfundunt.

tam pallidæ quam rubeæ.

• suavissimo odore (crescens) imbuit.

of April, and about Bartholomew-tide. Next to that is the musk-rose. Then the strawberry-leaves dying, with a most excellent cordial smell.2 Then the flower of the vines; it is a little dust, like the dust of a bent 3, which grows upon the cluster in the first coming forth. Then sweet-briar. Then wallflowers, which are very delightful to be set under a parlour or lower chamber window. Then pinks and gilliflowers, specially the matted pink and clove gilliflower. Then the flowers of the lime-tree. Then the honeysuckles, so they be somewhat afar off. Of bean-flowers I speak not, because they are field flowers. But those which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three; that is, burnet, wild-thyme, and watermints. Therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread.

For gardens (speaking of those which are indeed prince-like, as we have done of buildings), the contents ought not well to be under thirty acres of ground; and to be divided into three parts; a green in the entrance; a heath or desert in the going forth; and the main garden in the midst; besides alleys on both sides. And I like well that four acres of ground be assigned to the green; six to the heath; four and four to either side and twelve to the main garden. The green hath two pleasures: the one, because nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn; the other, because it will give you a fair alley in the midst, by which you may go in front upon a stately hedge, which is to enclose the garden. But because the alley will be long, and, in great heat of the year or day, you ought not to buy the shade in the garden by going in the sun thorough the green, therefore you are, of either side the green, to plant a covert alley, upon carpenter's work, about twelve foot in height, by which you may go in shade into the garden. As for the making of knots or figures with divers coloured earths, that they may lie under the windows of the house on that side which the garden stands", they be but toys:

1 sub finem Augusti.

So Ed. 1639. The original has "which a most excellent cordial smell." Possibly it should be which yield. The translation has quæ halitum emittunt plane cardiacum. 3 qualis est in caule plantaginis.

The British Museum copy (see note at the end) omits and gilliflowers. translation has tum cariophyllatæ tam minores quam majores.

The translation adds tum flores lavendulæ.

7 This clause is omitted in the translation.

The

6

fruticetum sive eremum.

you may see as good sights many times in tarts. The garden is best to be square, encompassed on all the four sides with a stately arched hedge. The arches to be upon pillars of carpenter's work, of some ten foot high, and six foot broad; and the spaces between of the same dimension with the breadth of the arch. Over the arches let there be an entire hedge of some four foot high, framed also upon carpenter's work; and upon the upper hedge, over every arch, a little turret, with a belly, enough to receive a cage of birds: and over every space between the arches some other little figure, with broad plates of round coloured glass gilt, for the sun to play upon. But this hedge I intend to be raised upon a bank, not steep, but gently slope, of some six foot, set all with flowers. Also I understand, that this square of the garden should not be the whole breadth of the ground, but to leave on either side ground enough for diversity of side alleys; unto which the two covert alleys of the green may deliver you. But there must be no alleys with hedges at either end of this great enclosure; not at the hither end, for letting your prospect upon this fair hedge from the green; nor at the further end, for letting your prospect from the hedge through the arches upon the heath.

2

For the ordering of the ground within the great hedge, I leave it to variety of device; advising nevertheless that whatsoever form you cast it into, first, 3 it be not too busy, or full of work. Wherein I, for my part, do not like images cut out in juniper or other garden stuff; they be for children. Little low hedges, round, like welts', with some pretty pyramides, I like well; and in some places, fair columns upon frames of carpenter's work." I would also have the alleys spacious and fair. You may have closer alleys upon the side. grounds, but none in the main garden. I wish also, in the very middle, a fair mount, with three ascents, and alleys, enough

impediat.

2

ne... intercipiat.

My copy of Ed. 1625 has a comma after first and no comma after into. The copy in the British Museum has a comma after into, and no comma after first. So also Ed. 1639. The translation has quæcunque ea tandem sit, nimis curiosa et operosa ne sit. I suspect that the direction was to add the second comma and leave the first, and that it was misunderstood, or imperfectly executed; an accident which may easily happen, and would account for the occasional introduction of a change which could not have been intended.

instar fimbriarum.

5 Columnas etiam, et pyramides altas, ex opere lignario, in aliquibus locis sparsas, sepibus vestitas, recipio.

et tribus ambulacris.