AUSTERE PURITAN GARDENS 89 



of even greater tribulation and strife, for they were 

 resolved upon the "housecleaning," as someone has 

 termed it, of that powerful body. Separation was 

 the farthest thing from their purpose; but they were 

 determined upon reform, upon theological purification. 



Hence they were revolutionists of the most aggres- 

 sive type, with the revolutionist's severity of spirit; 

 and the very fact that they were men of higher station 

 than the simple Scrooby congregation, made them more 

 intense, more extreme, more determined and less 

 likely to tolerate what they condemned. Men of posi- 

 tion, education and culture, they were naturally more 

 imperious in their attitude, and they cultivated their 

 convictions with more intellectual force cultivated 

 them so assiduously that their ever narrowing zealotry 

 reached a fearful climax in the witchcraft horrors 

 which stain the history of Salem toward the end of 

 that same century. 



Knowing the mental bias under which they lived, 

 therefore, we should know that it was never with 

 gardening for pleasure that these Puritans allowed 

 themselves to be occupied, even if there were no ac- 

 tual evidence to prove it. But there is such evidence, 

 indirect in a way, yet positive and conclusive. It lies 

 in the lack of all reference to gardens, other than 

 economic gardens, in the diaries, travelers' tales and 

 letters of the period. Governor Winthrop's concern 



