AN ESSEX GARDEN R.SOUTHEY 



feverfew, hyssop, lavender, rosemary, rue, sage, Fragrant 



wormwood, camomile, thyme, and box were herbs 



used for this purpose: a German horticulturist 



observes that hyssop 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. . . . 



The fashion which this buxom Flora intro- 

 duced 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 re- 

 sembling those of Turkey carpets, where Ma- 

 hommedan laws interdict the likeness of any 

 living thing, and the taste of Turkish weavers ex- 

 cludes any combination of graceful forms. One 

 sense at least was gratified when fragrant herbs 

 were used in these "rare figures of composures," 

 orknots as they were called, hyssop being mix- 

 ed in them with thyme, as aiders the one to the 

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

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