GLEANINGS ON GARDENS. 13 



and magnificence of its gardens : * The gardens to the 

 south front are all in King "William's style of fortifi- 

 cations, surrounded with yew-hedges, cut in variety 

 of forms, according to the taste of that time. Some, 

 indeed, have been suffered to outgrow their original 

 shape, and are really beautiful. As there are so few 

 relics of these sorts of antiquities now remaining, 'tis 

 pity not to have the power of such an inspection 

 sometimes ; this is certainly a very fit object for that 

 purpose, and will, in all probability, long continue so.'* 



* These once celebrated gardens were the delight of that Viscount 

 Scudamore, whose zeal was almost the occasion of throwing the 

 whole county of Hereford ' into one entire orchard ; ' and who 

 produced an apple 



' . . . . whose pulpous fruit, 

 With gold irradiate, and vermilion, shone tempting.* 



To view these gardens, Laud frequently visited Holm-Lacy, and 

 they were a great solace to Lord Scudamore, when his friend, 

 Buckingham, was stabbed by Felton. Lord Scudamore stood next 

 to the Duke when that blow was struck, and the grief which that 

 event caused induced him to retire from public life to Holm- Lacy. 

 He closed a life of honour in 1671. I believe it was this Lord 

 Scudamore who introduced Milton, when in his bloom of life, to the 

 aged Galileo, in Tuscany, after he had been twice in the Inquisition. 

 I gather this from the Mornings in Spring, where Nathan Drake 

 has given an interesting account of that meeting. 



The dagger with which Felton stabbed Buckingham was barbed at 

 the end like an arrow, so that when once it was stricken home into 

 the flesh, it must almost certainly be fatal. The dagger is preserved 

 at Newnham Paddox, in Leicestershire, the seat of the Earl of 

 Denbigh, whose possession of it seems to arise from his ancestor, 

 the first earl, having been married to Buckingham's sister. 



