32 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



surround it. Such was the fountain in Leigh 

 Hunt's Story of Rimini, which shot up " beneath 

 a shade of darksome pines," 



" And 'twixt their shafts you saw the water bright, 



Which through the tops glimmered with show'ring light." 



Bacon speaks of a " heath or desart " as a 

 part of the garden, and says it is "to be framed 

 as much as may be to a natural wilderness." 

 There r are to be no trees there, but thickets of 

 honeysuckle and other trailing plants, and heaps 

 like molehills, set with pinks or periwinkles, or 

 violets, or various "sweet and sightly" flowers, 

 and on some of the heaps little bushes of juni- 

 per or rosemary, or other low-growing shrubs, are 

 to be planted. Such a garden would hardly 

 seem to be one of " natural wildness " ; but 

 Bacon's theory that there should be a "wild 

 garden " is, with certain modifications, carried 

 out in various places. But to cultivate a wild 

 garden almost involves a paradox. The plants 

 should grow of their own accord, and as their 

 vagrant fancy takes them. The prettiest of all 

 wild gardens is when the bluebells are so thick 



