194 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. 
what already exists ; and it is in the discovery of that fitting 
place that we shall show our skill and our knowledge. But 
there has been so much heretical doctrine preached upon 
this subject, that I would fain have my say in defence of my 
Bamboos and other fair plants which have been so unjustly 
vilipended, taking for my text Bacon’s famous saying, 
“God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed it is the 
purest of human pleasures.” 
Many years ago I was travelling with a companion in 
Asia Minor, and we passed some days in the Troad. It was 
before the days of Schliemann’s great discoveries, and we, 
full of young ambition and presumption, thought that 
perhaps for us the centuries might have guarded the secrets 
of King Priam’s treasure-house, and that to our lot might 
fall the glory of fixing the site of the buried city. In vain 
we sought, thermometer in hand, for the warm springs at 
which the deep-bosomed Trojan dames were wont to wash 
peplum and chiton ; in vain we tried to fix the positions of 
the great gates, and dug in every mound for relics of the 
mighty dead. We were not possessed of the talisman 
which should charm the guardian Afrits into revelation of 
the mysteries committed to their charge, and we went away 
no wiser than we came. Had we but been armed with 
King Solomon’s seal we should have been famous, and 
Schliemann an unknown nonentity. Fate willed that it 
should be the other way. 
If, however, we did not find the city of Troy, we never- 
theless were not without our Homeric experiences. Well do 
I remember how, on one occasion, the god descended into 
the river Scamander, and there was a mighty flood, and we, 
