84 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



SIR Was educated at Wmchestej' and Oxford, then travelled for nine years ^ one 



HENRY y^ar in France, and at Geneva, where he was acquainted with Theodore Beza 



/AC A \ '^^^ Isaac Casaubon ; three years in Germany and five in Italy, where 



\ 3 6^)' {^(K^^ording to Isaac Walton), both in Ro7ne, Venice, and Florence he became 



acquainted with the most eminent 7?ienfor learning, and all manner of arts, as 



picture, sculpture, chemistry, architecture, and other manual arts: on his 



return became Secretary to the Earl of Essex, upon whose apprehension he 



returned to Italy. The Grand Duke of Ttcscany sent hi??i to James, King of 



Scotland, to acquaint him with a plot upon his life, which %vas the beginning 



of Wottons fortune. On the King's accession he was sent as Ambassador to 



Venice — iti Augsburg he wrote his famous definition of an Ambassador 



sent to ''lie abroad for his cotintry' — on his return he ^ was made Provost of 



Eton. 



His writings were collected in ^ Reliqtiicc Wottoniame' by I. Walton (1651), 

 containing his '■Elements of Architecture.' He is nozv remembered chiefiy 

 by his poems, and his epigram {I'ecorded on his tomb) ' Disputandi pruritus 

 ecclesiaru?n scabies. ' 



FIRST, I must note a certain contrariety between building and 

 gardening: for as Fabricks should be regular, so Gardens 

 should be irregular., or at least cast into a very wild Regularity. 

 To exemplifie my conceit, I have seen a Garden, for the manner 

 perchance incomparable, into which the first Access was a high 

 walk like a Tarrace, from whence might be taken a general view 

 of the whole Plot below, but rather in a dehghtful confusion, then 

 with any plain distinction of the pieces. From this the Beholder 

 descending many steps, was afterwards conveyed again by several 

 mountings and valings, to various entertainments of his sent and 

 sight : which I shall not need to describe, for that were poetical, 

 let me only note this, that every one of these diversities, was as 

 if he had been magically transported into a new Garden. 



But though other Countreys have more benefit of Sun than we, 

 and thereby more properly tyed to contemplate this delight ; yet 

 have I seen in our own, a delicate and diligent curiosity, surely 

 without parallel among foreign Nations : Namely, in the Garden 

 of Sir Henry Fafishaw, at his Seat in Ware-Park ; where I well 

 remember, he did so precisely examine the tinctures and seasons 

 of his flowers, that in their settings, the inwardest of which that 

 were to come up at the same time, should be always a little darker 



