CHAPTER Y 



WOODS AND FIELDS 



RURAL life, says Cicero, " is not delightful 

 by reason of cornfields only and meadows, and 

 vineyards and groves, but also for its gardens 

 and orchards, for the feeding of cattle, the 

 swarms of bees, and the variety of all kinds of 

 flowers." Bacon considered that a garden is 

 "the greatest refreshment to the spirits of 

 man, without which buildings and palaces 

 are but gross handyworks, and a man shall 

 ever see, that when ages grow to civility and 

 elegancy men come to build stately sooner 

 than to garden finely, as if gardening were 

 the greater perfection." 



No doubt " the pleasure which we take in a 

 garden is one of the most innocent delights in 

 human life." 1 Elsewhere there may be scat- 



1 The Spectator. 



167 



