Bacoris Essay on Gardens. 27 



as in blossom, and the yellow and grey 

 crocus. 



Bacon's Essay is rather too elaborate and 

 technical for my immediate purpose. He 

 contemplates grounds laid out on an ex- 

 tensive scale, and gives thirty acres as the 

 area requisite for his scheme, which consists 

 in a green or lawn of four acres, a heath 

 or desert of six, and a main garden of twelve, 

 with alleys between. Bacon preferred the 

 square form, " encompassed on all the four 

 sides with a stately arched hedge, the arches 

 to be upon pillars of carpenter's work, of 

 some ten feet high and six feet broad, and 

 the spaces between of the same dimension 

 with the breadth of the arch." The minute- 

 ness with which this great man describes all 

 the particulars, and the interest which he 

 evidently felt in the subject, are very striking \ 

 he found in his own grounds an agreeable 

 and soothing diversion from public employ- 

 ments. It is worth observing that he had 

 no taste for the fantastic or grotesque. " As 

 for the making of knots or figures, with 

 divers- coloured earths, that they may lie 



