INTRODUCTION lv 



and Gastronomy ; and his " Sylva " although the last 

 and best edition by Dr. A. Hunter, F.R.S., of York, 

 was published in 1 786 still remains one of the classics 

 certainly the literary classic of its subject. I have 

 therefore chosen for reproduction here and I hope 

 the Garden-maniac '(the word is not mine, but the 

 Prince de Ligne's!) will approve my selection his 

 more important letters on the history and literature of 

 Gardens his Scenario or Epitome of a History of 

 Gardens which will be of priceless suggestion to the 

 Historian of Gardens, when he shall at last appear ; 

 and, finally, the descriptions of Gardens in England 

 and on the Continent, which he visited throughout his 

 travels one may almost say, throughout the long 

 journey of his life. 



si sic omnes ! If peradventure one "righteous" 

 traveller and Garden fanatic and their number is 

 legion would so describe the gardens of our own 

 generation not only as " Country Life " is doing 

 it in word and picture fine as that is but in the 

 true spirit of that observer and chronicler, John Evelyn. 

 With all our interest, real and assumed, in Gardens, I do 

 not know of any lately published account of Gardens in 

 Britain or abroad that will be to future generations of 

 quite the living and abiding historical and archaeological 



