46 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



one of those plants which are particularly delightful 

 if trodden upon and crushed. Shakespeare accord- 

 ingly knew that the pressure of the Fairy Queen's 

 little body upon the thyme would cause it to yield a 

 delicious perfume. 



The Elizabethans, much more sensitive to per- 

 fume than we are to-day, appreciated the scent of 

 what we consider lowly flowers. They did not hesi- 

 tate to place a sprig of rosemary in a nosegay of 

 choice flowers. They loved thyme, lavender, 

 marjoram, mints, balm, and camomile, thinking that 

 these herbs refreshed the head, stimulated the 

 memory, and were antidotes against the plague. 



The flowers in the "knots" were perennials, 

 planted so as to gain uniformity of height ; and those 

 that had affinity for one another were placed side 

 by side. No attempt was made to group them ; and 

 no attempt was made to get masses of separate color, 

 what Locker-Lampson calls "a mist of blue in the 

 beds, a blaze of red in the celadon jars" and what 

 we try for to-day. On the contrary, the Elizabethan 

 gardener's idea was to mix and blend the flowers 

 into a combination of varied hues that melted into 

 one another as the hues of a rainbow blend and in 

 such a way that at a distance no one could possibly 

 tell what flowers produced this effect. This must 



