Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin 
Vol. IV St. Louis, Mo., February, 1916 No. 2 
A SHAKESPEAREAN GARDEN 
No celebration of the three- 
hundredth anniversary of 
Shakespeare’s death would be 
complete without a Shakes- 
pearean garden. The works of 
the great dramatist abound in 
plant lore and garden craft, and 
prove beyond question that he 
knew and loved the plants and 
gardens of his time. 
The era in which Shakes- 
peare lived and worked was one 
particularly favorable for gard- 
ening, as well as for literature 
and the other arts. It was only 
just previous to this period that 
the nobility began to erect their 
great country mansions, and 
the garden was considered a very important adjunct. Prob- 
ably at no other time has landscape gardening taken a 
higher rank, the garden giving, as it did, a special and fin- 
ished character to the building, and being an essential part 
of the general scheme. The architect-builder of the house 
was usually the designer of the garden, John Thorpe being 
one of the most famous architects of the period, who de- 
signed many estates combining house and grounds. That 
the landscaping was considered no mean task is evidenced 
by Bacon’s statement that ‘Men come to build stately sooner 
than to garden finely; as if gardening were the greater 
perfection.” 
It is natural, therefore, that the history of the architecture 
and gardening of the Elizabethan era should be closely re- 
lated. Religious persecution in parts of Europe, combined 
with other causes, brought many gardeners, as well as build- 
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