xiv PREFACE 



personality of a man who was such a deep lover of 

 horticulture and who held such a large place in the 

 London world in Shakespeare's time. The dignity, 

 refinement, distinction, and general atmosphere of 

 Nicholas Leate and evidently Mytens painted a 

 direct portrait without flattery bespeak the type of 

 gentleman who sought re-creation in gardens and 

 who could have held his own upon the subject with 

 Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Thomas More, Sir Philip Sid- 

 ney, Lord Burleigh, and Sir Henry Wotton and, 

 doubtless, he knew them all. 



It was not an easy matter to have this portrait 

 photographed, because when the Hall of the Wor- 

 shipful Company of Ironmongers was destroyed by 

 a German bomb in 1917 the rescued portrait was 

 stored in the National Gallery. Access to the por- 

 trait was very difficult, and it was only through the 

 great kindness of officials and personal friends that 

 a reproduction was made possible. 



I wish, therefore, to thank the Worshipful Com- 

 pany of Ironmongers for the gracious permission to 

 have the portrait photographed and to express my 

 gratitude to Mr. Collins Baker, keeper of the Na- 

 tional Gallery, and to Mr. Ambrose, chief clerk and 

 secretary of the National Gallery, for their kind co- 

 operation; to Mr. C. W. Carey, curator of the 



