88 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



easier of the two to reproduce to-day. Although it 

 only occupies a small corner in the garden proper, 

 yet all the flowers mentioned by Shakespeare can 

 be grown in it. 



In rural England it is not rare to come across 

 old gardens that owed their existence to disciples 

 of Didymus Mountain, Markham, Lawson, and 

 Parkinson gardens that have been tended for three 

 hundred years and more with loving care, where 

 the blossoms are descendants of "outlandish" im- 

 portations of Nicholas Leate and Lord Burleigh, 

 and of simple English flowers. These gladden the 

 eyes of their owners to-day as the original flowers 

 gladdened the eyes of those who planted them. 

 Generations of people in the house and generations 

 of flowers in the garden thus flourished and faded 

 side by side while the old stock put forth new blos- 

 soms in both house and garden to continue the family 

 traditions of both the human and the floral world. 



A typical garden dating from Shakespearean times 

 was thus described a few years ago in "The Gentle- 

 man's Magazine" : 



"In all England one could, perhaps, find no 

 lovelier garden than that of T , an old manor- 

 house, sheltered by hill and bounded by the moat, 

 which is the only relic of the former feudal castle. 



