FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 57 



in captivity, his solace was writing verse, and he has left this 

 most charming picture of the garden beneath his prison 

 window : 



" Now was there made, fast by the Towris wall, 

 A garden fair ; — and in the corners set 

 An arbour green, with wandis long and small 

 Railed about, and so with trees set 

 Was all the place, and Hawthorne hedges knet, 

 That lyf was none walking there forbye 

 That might within scarce any wight espy. 



" So thick the boughes and the leaves green 

 Beshaded all the alleys that there were. 

 And mids of every arbour might be seen 

 The sharpe greene sweet Juniper 

 Growing so fair with branches here and there, 

 That as it seemed to a lyf without, 

 The boughes spread the arbour all about. 



" And on ths smalle greene twistis sat 

 The little sweet nightingale, and sung 

 So loud and clear, the hymnis consecrat 

 Of loris use, now soft, now lowd, among. 

 That all the gardens and the wallis rung 

 Right of their song." 



