24 THE ENGLISH GARDEN. 



Yet did he deign to light with cafual glance 415 



The wilds of tafte. Yes, * fageft VERULAM, 



'Twas thine to banifh from the royal groves 



Each childifh vanity of crifped knot 



And fculptor'd foliage ; to the lawn reftore 



Its ample fpace, and bid it feaft the fight 420 



With verdure pure, unbroken, unabridg'd : 



For green is to the eye, what to the ear 



Is harmony, or to the fmell the rofe. 



So 



* Lord Bacon in the 46th of his eflays defcribes what he calls the platform of 

 a princely garden. If the Reader compare this defcription with that which Sir 

 William Temple has given in his eflay, entituled, Tlje Gardens of Epicurus ^ writ- 

 ten in a fubfequent age, he will find the fuperiority of the former very apparent ; 

 for tho' both of them are much obfcur'd by the falfe tafte of the times in which 

 they were written, yet the vigor of Lord Bacon's genius breaks frequently thro' 

 the cloud, and gives us a very clear difplay of what the real merit of gardening 

 would be when its true principles were afcertained. For inftance, out of 

 thirty acres which he allots for the whole of his Pleafure-ground, he fele&s the 

 firft four for a lawn, without any intervention of plot or parterre, " becaufe" 

 fays he, " nothing is more pleafant to the eye than green grafs kept finely 

 ihorn." And " as for the making of knots of figures, with diverfe coloured 

 " earths, that they may lie under the windows of the houfe, on that fide which 

 " the garden {rands, they be but toys, you may fee as good fights many times 

 in tarts." Sir William Temple on the contrary tell us, that in the garden 

 at Moor-park, which was his model of perfection, the firft inlet to the whole 



