18 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



The following fascinating lines of Spenser sum 

 up the favourite flowers of those wonderful Eliza- 

 bethan days : 



1 Bring hither the Pinke and purple Cullambine 



With Gelliflowers, 

 Bring Coronations, and Sops-in-wine, 



Worne of paramoures. 



Strowe me the ground with Daffadoundillies 

 And Cowslips and Kingcups and loved Lillies, 



The pretty Pawnee 



And the Chevisaunce 

 Shall match with the fayre flowre Delice." 



Shakespeare is perhaps the King par excellence 

 of all flower-worshippers, his plays and poems 

 being full of charming fancies about English 

 flowers. He also notes in many places the features 

 of the Formal Garden by alluding to : 



'The quaint mazes in the wanton green"; 



' Through forthrights and meanders " ; 



' A Garden circummured with brick " ; 



' A planched gate " ; 



'Thick pleached alley"; 



'Pleached alley where Honeysuckle ripen'd by the 



sun " ; 

 "Curiously knotted Garden." 



No notes upon Gardens would be complete with- 

 out the mention of the Herbal literature, which was 



