236 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



was preferred as the most convenient; box, however, gradually 

 obtained the preference. The Jesuit Rapin claims for the French 

 the merit of bringing this plant into use, and embellishes his 

 account of it by one of those school-boy fictions which passed for 

 poetry in his day, and may still pass for it in his country. He 

 describes a feast of the rural Gods. . . . 



Adfuit et Cybele, Phrygias celebrata per urbes, etc. 



The fashion which this buxom Flora introduced had at one 

 time the effect of banishing flowers from what should have been 

 the flower garden ; the ground was set with box in their stead, 

 disposed in patterns more or less formal, some intricate as a 

 labyrinth and not little resembling those of Turkey carpets, where 

 Mahommedan laws interdict the likeness of any living thing, and 

 the taste of Turkish weavers excludes any combination of graceful 

 forms. One sense at least was gratified when fragrant herbs were 

 used in these ' rare figures of composures,' or knots as they were 

 called, hyssop being mixed in them with thyme, as aiders the one 

 to the other, the one being dry, the other moist. Box had the 

 disadvantage of a disagreeable odour ; but it was greener in winter 

 and more compact in all seasons. To lay out these knots and 

 tread them required the skill of a master-gardener : much labour 

 was thus expended without producing any beauty. The walks 

 between them were sometimes of different colours ; some would 

 be of lighter or darker gravel, red or yellow sand : and when such 

 materials were at hand, pulverised coal, and pulverised shells. 



Such a garden Mr Cradock saw at Bordeaux no longer ago 

 than the year 1785 ; it belonged to Monsieur Rabi, a very rich 

 Jew merchant, and was surrounded by a bank of earth, on which 

 there stood about two hundred blue and white flower-pots ; the 

 garden itself was a scroll-work cut very narrow, and the interstices 

 filled with sand of different colours to imitate embroidery; it 

 required repairing after every shower, and if the wind rose, the 

 eyes were sure to suffer. Yet the French admired this and 

 exclaimed, Superbe ! magnifique f 



Neither Miss Allison nor her niece would have taken any 



