334 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



valuable contributions of old-fashioned roses and 

 other flowers. 



"From the gardens of all the Royal Palaces, which 

 were known to Shakespeare, ample parcels of the 

 same sorts of flowers as grew in them when he visited 

 them have been forwarded to Stratford-upon-Avon. 

 Thus, from Greenwich, where we know that he ap- 

 peared as an actor before Queen Elizabeth at Christ- 

 mas, 1594; from Windsor, where his Company per- 

 formed before the same Queen probably in "The 

 Merry Wives of Windsor" as well as from Frog- 

 more, which that play proves his acquaintance with ; 

 from Hampton Court out of the Old Tudor 

 Garden, 'circum-mured with brick,' which he must 

 have visited when he and his fellows of the 'King's 

 Company of Actors' spent ten days there during the 

 Christmastide of 1603-4, presenting six plays before 

 King James and his Court from the gardens of all 

 these places large consignments of plants have 

 reached Shakespeare's Garden. 



"From Wilton, likewise, where Shakespeare and 

 his Company first acted before King James, a large 

 number of specimens of every plant and flower 

 wanted by the Trustees, has been sent by the present 

 owner the lineal descendant of the one, and the 

 kinsman and representative of the other, of the two 



