274 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



6 junipers, 4 hollies, and 2 perimic box trees." These 

 '* perimetric " trees had already gone through the neces- 

 sary clipping and training, to enable them to take their 

 place in the trim Dutch garden. Another year flowering 

 shrubs are got for the Benchers' Garden : " 2 messerius 

 at 2s., and 2 lorrestines at 2s." The Daphne mezereum 

 had been a favourite in English gardens from the earliest 

 times, and the laurestinus (^Viburnum tinus) came from 

 South Europe in the sixteenth century. Parkinson, the 

 most attractive of all the old gardening authors, has a 

 delightfully true description of the " Laurus Tinus," with 

 its " many small white sweete-smelling flowers thrusting 

 together, . . . the edges whereof have a shew of a wash 

 purple or light blush in them ; which for the most part 

 fall away without bearing any perfect ripe fruit in our 

 countrey : yet sometimes it hath small black berries, as if 

 they were good, but are not " ! Fruit-trees were also to 

 be found — peaches, " nectrons," cherries, and plums, 

 besides figs and mulberries. That the walls were 

 covered with climbing roses and jessamine is certain, 

 from the oft-recurring cost of nailing them up. " Nails 

 and list for the jessamy wall," and the needful bits of 

 old felt required to fasten them up, was another time 

 supplied by " hatt parings for the jessamines." 



Thus it is easy, bit by bit, out of the old accounts, 

 to piece together the Garden, until the mind's eye can see 

 back into the days of Queen Anne, and take an imaginary 

 walk through it on a fine spring evening. The Bencher 

 walks out of the large window of the " green-house " on 

 to the terrace, where the sun-dial points the hour : the 

 orange trees, glossy and fresh from their winter quarters, 

 stand in stifle array, in the large artistic pots. Down the 

 steps, a few stifl beds are bright with Dutch bulbs in 



