28 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



in summer time they are very convenient for bath- 

 ing. In another room for entertainment near this, 

 and joined to it by a little bridge, was an oval table 

 of red marble." 



Another and accurate picture of a stately Eliza- 

 bethan garden is by a most competent authority, Sir 

 Philip Sidney (1554-86), who had a superb garden 

 of his own in Kent. In "Arcadia" we read: 



"Kalander one afternoon led him abroad to a 

 well-arrayed ground he had behind his house which 

 he thought to show him before his going, as the place 

 himself more than in any other, delighted in. The 

 backside of the house was neither field, garden, nor 

 orchard; or, rather, it was both field, garden and 

 orchard : for as soon as the descending of the stairs 

 had delivered they came into a place curiously set 

 with trees of the most taste-pleasing fruits; but 

 scarcely had they taken that into their consideration 

 but that they were suddenly stept into a delicate 

 green; on each side of the green a thicket, and be- 

 hind the thickets again new beds of flowers which 

 being under the trees, the trees were to them a 

 pavilion, and they to the trees a mosaical floor, so 

 that it seemed that Art therein would needs be de- 

 lightful by counterfeiting his enemy, Error, and 

 making order in confusion. In the midst of all the 



