138 Gleanings from the 



In the " Aflemble of Foules " the poet paints 

 another delightful garden : 



" A gardein fawe I full of bloflbmed bowis 

 Upon a rivir in a grene mede, 

 There as fweteneffe evirmore inough is 

 With flowris white and blewe, yelowe and rede. 

 And colde and clere welleftremis nothyng dede, 

 That fwommin full of fmale fifhis light, 

 With finnis rede and fcalis filvir bright." 



Yet a third exquifitely drawn garden will be 

 found in "The Frankleine's Tale," "of fwiche 

 pris," as if it were " the veray Paradis ;" and one 

 more in " The Merchant's Second Tale " : 



" This gardeyn is evir grene and full of May flowris, 

 Of rede, white, and blew, and other frefh colouris, 

 The wich ben fo redolent and fentyn fo about, 

 That he muft be right lewde therin fhuld route." 



The beginning of the " Complaint of the 

 Blacke Knight " ihould alfo be read by all defirous 

 of realizing what the gardens of the time refem- 

 bled. This account of the garden's greenery 

 contains at leaft one touch that mould be remem- 

 bered by lovers of the country : 



" There fawe I growing eke the frelhe hauthorne 

 In white motley, that fo fote doth yfmell." 



The gardens attached to many of the Middle- 

 Age caftles are of great intereft. A good example 

 may be feen at Stirling, of which the charac- 

 teriftics are the frowning walls of the caftle fur- 

 rounding it, the little peep at the fky which it 

 afforded, the fmall fcope there was for a few 

 bufhes and perhaps a low tree or two to be culti- 



