Evolution of Ibortfculture 



differed so much from its present one. 

 Without this, what a loss of variety we 

 should have suffered ! If the taste of the 

 present generation had been that of all 

 past ages, what could there have been in 

 the gardens of our past kings, nobles, and 

 historical characters to mark them as 

 strongly and emphatically as they are 

 now marked? They now, indeed, seem 

 to belong to men and things gone by. 

 There is something in them of a sombre 

 and becoming melancholy. They are in 

 keeping with the houses they surround, 

 and the portraits in the galleries of those 

 houses. Our historic memories are inti- 

 mately connected with such places. Our 

 Howards, Essexes, Surreys, and Wolseys, 

 were the magnificent founders and crea- 

 tors of such places : and in such, Shake- 

 speare and Spenser, Milton and Bacon 

 and Sidney mused." ! 



In the consideration of the gardening 

 art, wherever it is to be employed, it 

 must be determined how closely nature 



1 Hewitt's Rural England. 



156 



