•^ The Scented Qarden (jj£ 



(tenth century) the Saxon queen Ethelreda, the foundress 

 of Ely Cathedral, is depicted holding in one hand a 

 book of the Gospels, and in the other a Madonna lily. 



Throughout mediaeval days the Madonna lily was ' the 

 lily.' One of the most beautiful word-pictures of the 

 Madorna lily is that given by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, 

 the great thirteenth-century scholar, in his De Proprietati- 

 bus Rerum. Of the lily he writes : * The lily is an herbe 

 with a white flower : and though the leaves of the 

 floure be white yet within shineth the likenesse of gold. 

 The Lily is next to the Rose in worthiness and nobleness. 

 Nothing is more gracious than the Lily in fairness of 

 colour, in sweetnesse of smell, and in effect of workng 

 and vertue.' ' Though the leaves of the floure be white 

 yet within shineth the likenessse of gold ' — one feels that 

 this description could have been written only by a child 

 or a great scholar, for it describes not only the lily but 

 the atmosphere of the lily with inimitable simplicity. Bar- 

 tholomaeus Anglicus, who ranks with Roger Bacon and 

 Thomas Aquinas, was one of the greatest theologians of 

 the thirteenth century and his book was the source of 

 common information on Natural History throughout the 

 Middle Ages. We do not know whether he was a gardener, 

 but his writings about flowers and fruits and woodlands 

 give the impression that he possessed a garden and worked 

 in it. His descriptions do not savour of a study, for there 

 is fresh air and the beauty of the living flowers in them. 

 I love also the description in Lyte's Herbal (157$) of the 

 Madonna lily and especially of the stamens. * The white 

 Lilly, his leaves be long and broad, and somewhat thicke 

 or fat, amongst the which springeth up a straight stem 

 or stalke of three foot long or more, set and garnished 

 166 



