MEDLEVAL GARDENS 



pany, which his fancy makes to quit plague- 

 stricken Florence for the country, where they tell 

 stories to prevent monotony, he relates that, after 

 dining in the cool shade, and before the story- 

 telling begins, " the gentlemen walked with the 

 ladies into a goodly garden, making chaplets and 

 nosegays of divers flowers, and singing silently 

 to themselves/' Both sexes wore them on festive 

 occasions, and in summer young girls wore no 

 head-covering save a garland. The knight at 

 the tournament decked his helm with a chaplet 

 of some chosen flower, deftly woven by the fair 

 one in whose name he made venture ; and many 

 a merry company, wreathed with flowers or 

 foliage, rode forth on May-day, with trumpets 

 and flutes, to celebrate the festival. 



Another favourite flower for garlands was the 

 cornflower, as we learn from the poets, who tell 

 of ladies dancing the carole (a popular dance in 

 which all moved slowly round in a circle, singing 

 at the same time), their heads crowned with 

 garlands of cornflower. Violets and periwinkles, 

 and meadow flowers, white, red, and blue, were 

 also gathered to indulge this pretty fancy. 



The gillyflower is another flower frequently 

 mentioned. This name has been applied to 

 various flowers, but originally it belonged to the 

 carnation, and was used for such in Shakespeare's 

 time. In the Roman de la Rose it is called the 

 gillyflower-clove, thus definitely defining it. One 

 of its virtues, according to an old writer, was 

 " to comfort the spirites by the sence of smelling," 



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