218 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



house as he left, the infernal flames being stayed at 

 the chapel. 



It is almost a sorrow to try to paint with such a 

 cold medium as a pen the quaint beauties of these 

 Gardens at Hatfield. They possess, like most 

 Gardens, that strange power of conjuring up the 

 past for those with eyes to see, making the little 

 Privy Garden re-echo with footsteps of famous 

 men and women from Queen Elizabeth to the late 

 celebrated Prime Minister of England. Then the 

 old Palace, strangely bound up with the flowers 

 near by as life is with stern realities and pretty 

 follies, stands a living record of five hundred years 

 of ecclesiastical grandeur. And the Vineyard that 

 "rarity" what if much of its glory has departed, 

 does it not still remain a beautiful stately poem, a 

 possession to be revered as well as loved? To 

 none of its lovers is it more delightsome than to 

 the mischievous Titania, Queen of the Fairies, who 

 eagerly leaves her flowery bowers for the cool, 

 green Garden, ready to play her pranks on any 

 mortal who dares venture to invade it, and her 

 fairies snatch with tiny, greedy hands at many a 

 treasure which is lost sought for but never 

 found. 



