THE 



POETRY OF GARDENING: 



Liiia mista rosis." School Exercise. 



'* GOD ALMIGHTY first planted a garden, and indeed it is 

 the purest of all human pleasures." I love Lord Bacon 

 for that saying more than for his being the author of the 

 ' Novum Organon.' Willingly I would give up his four 

 folio volumes of philosophy for his one little book of 

 Essays, and all these for his one little Essay on Garden- 

 ing. It is indeed only by the study of " those fragments 

 of his conceits," as he calls them, that the full compass of 

 that great man's mind can be understood. He did not 

 think it beneath his philosophy to descant on such toys as 

 the ordering of a Masque and the dressing of a Garden. 

 He discusses, with perfect love of the subject, how " the 

 colours that show best by candlelight are white, car- 

 nation, and a kind of sea-water green ;" and how that 

 " ouches or spangs, as they are of no great cost, so are they 

 of most glory," and recommends, with the very refinement 

 of luxury, as " things of great pleasure and refreshment, 

 some sweet odours suddenly coming forth " on the com- 

 pany, in the midst of the entertainment. 



With a still greater love and adoption of his subject, he 

 enters into the description of how royally he would order 

 his Garden. Dear old Evelyn himself never eyed with 



* See p. 55. 



G2 



