xii INTRODUCTION 



" Stream of the World," which, according to Goethe, 

 forms Characters, as distinguished from the Talent, 

 which is shaped "in der Stille." 



In the present volume they have their place chiefly 

 as Garden lovers, or, to use Evelyn's words, as " Para- 

 disi Cultores Paradisean and Hortulan Saints," and 

 only incidentally will they be referred to in any other 

 capacity. 



This group of writers not only represents in Liter- 

 ature a distinct school of thought and action, with 

 views of life very closely akin, but also a definite 

 variation of the Garden- Art, from the spacious age of 

 Elizabeth and Bacon, which revelled in the terraced 

 and statued Architectural gardens of Italy, (derived 

 from the great Roman builders of Gardens,) and 

 adapted to English needs and taste. Passing through 

 the grand style of Le Notre or the Horizontal garden 

 so characteristic of the ceremonial display of France 

 and its Grand Monarch, the Revolution brings us 

 to the Dutch Regime, represented at its culminating 

 point in England by Hampton Court under London 

 and Wise ; and in Holland, whence the idee mere was 

 derived, by the princely gardens of Loo, Ryswick and 

 Hanslerdyck. This last phase might, I think, be 

 called the Canal type of Garden since Water in 



