132 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



most gardens were of practical service as well as 

 pleasure-giving, in fact, useful ornaments. 



" For if delight may provoke men's labour, what 

 greater delight is there than to behold the earth 

 apparelled with plants, as with a robe of embroidered 

 worke, set with orient pearls, and garnished with 

 great diversitie of rare and costlie jewels? If this 

 varietie and perfection of colours may affect the eie, 

 it is such in herbes and flowers that no Apelles, no 

 Zeuxis ever could by any art expresse the like ; if 

 odours or if taste may work satisfaction, they are 

 both so soveraigne in plants, and so comfortable 

 that no confection of the Apothecaries can equal 

 their excellent vertue. But these delights are in the 

 outward senses: the principal delight is in the minde, 

 singularly enriched with the knowledge of these 

 visible things, setting forth to us the invisible wisdom 

 and admirable workmanship of Almighty God. The 

 delight is great, but the use greater and joyned often 

 with necessitie." 



inflnence of The discovery of the New World largely increased 

 cry of the range of horticulture. When England joined 

 in the great maritime movement carried on by 

 other nations from the middle of the fourteenth 

 century, her explorers returned with ship-loads of 

 "outlandish commodities." Among these imports was 

 an abundance of plants. Just as the art of gardening 



