EVOLUTION OF THE GARDEN 25 



with Nature and moderate her course in things as 

 if they were her superiors. It is a world also to see 

 how many strange herbs, plants and annual fruits 

 are daily brought unto us from the Indies, Americas, 

 Taprobane, Canary Isles and all parts of the world. 

 "For mine own part, good reader, let me boast a 

 little of my garden, which is but small, and the 

 whole area thereof little above 300 foot of ground, 

 and yet, such hath been my good luck in purchase 

 of the variety of simples, that, notwithstanding my 

 small ability, there are very near 300 of one sort 

 and another contained therein, no one of them being 

 common or usually to be had. If, therefore, my 

 little plat void of all cost of keeping be so well fur- 

 nished, what shall we think of those of Hampton 

 Court, Nonesuch, Theobald's, Cobham Garden and 

 sundrie others appertaining to divers citizens of Lon- 

 don whom I could particularly name?" 



VI 



Tudor Gardens 



Several men of the New Learning, who, like 

 Shakespeare, lived into the reign of James I, ad- 

 vanced many steps beyond the botanists of the early 

 days of Queen Elizabeth. The old Herbals the 



