IN THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 5 



and then the picture would be complete. This he fills up with 

 quarters and beds. "Quarters'' he desires to be well turned 

 in, and fatted with good manure ; and the " beds " he thus de- 

 scribes — they are to be trodden out narrow^ and of a length as 

 twelve feet long and six feet broad. In moist ground the edges 

 of the beds are to be two feet high ; in dry ground the height of 

 one foot is declared sufficient ; and there are to be good gutters 

 around the beds. The above woodcut, taken from liis work, 

 shows a portion of a garden, containing a bed, a herber, an alley, 

 a walk, two creatures designed to be men, and one of the most 

 gorgeous sunsets ever beheld. 



The general laying out of the ground surface is now pretty 

 clear. But formal as the whole arrangement is, and equally 

 formal the shapes of the herbers, the alleys, and the walks, we 

 should form a very inadequate idea of the whole effect in appear- 

 ance, or of the then favourite subjects for horticulture, if we did 

 not give his instructions as to the seeds of vegetables, " tender 

 herbes and pleasant flowers," with which these beds were to be 

 stocked. In the end of harvest, in September and October, for 

 winter, are to be sown endive, onions, garlicke, scalions, the 

 great garlicke, young leek-heads, coleworts, mustard-seed, and 

 such like ; in harvest and spring time, coleworts, manew (so I 

 make out the word), artichoke, endive, lettuce, dyll, rocket, 

 coliander, parsley, fennell, radish, parsnip, carrot, and others. 

 This is the substance of the directions given in one chapter. In 

 the next he thus speaks of " tender herbes and pleasant flowers." 

 I go on at once to this part, for the intervening directions as to 

 the comparative ages of the seeds to be used scarcely belong to 

 this division of the subject. His list, then, of these herbs and 

 flowers is very curious — curious on account of their being so 

 intermingled as to give no idea of the taste shown in their dispo- 

 sition throughout the garden. It runs thus : — " Marjoram, 

 saverie, herbe fluelline, buglosse, the blessed thistel, the herbe 

 angelica, valerian, baulme, annis, dil, fennel, digany, rue or 

 herbe of grace, sperage, aracke, spynache, brites, endyve, 

 borage, rocket, taragone, parslie, sorrall, strawberrie, lettuce, 

 artichoke, marigold of all sorts : rosecampion red and white, 

 flower amorose, flower petilins, columbine white and blue, sweet 

 Johns, pincke, heart's-ease, peonie, red lilie, lavender gentle, 

 bachelors' button, gill-flower of all kinds, and carnation." 



Now there are several matters worthy of observation in this 

 portion of the work. An explanation of some of the words used 

 to designate vegetables or flowers would employ the leisure of 

 some of our readers well. It would be curious, again, to ascer- 

 tain which of our principal modern vegetables are absent from 

 this list ; tlie potato necessarily being one. As to the flowers. 



