Preliminaries. 3 



of his professional work. Next to Monk he 

 was probably the most able of the generals 

 of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, and 

 it was an error on the part of Cromwell to 

 have estranged him. But to his temporary 

 retirement we owe this little glimpse of his 

 taste for a pursuit more genial and more 

 humane than that of war. 



The earliest human scene is laid in a 

 garden. The Old Testament contains 

 numerous allusions to gardens. Throughout 

 Oriental literature and folk-lore, and in most 

 of the stories derived from the East, a 

 garden occupies a conspicuous position ; and 

 likewise in the mythology of other countries 

 we find legendary or traditional witness to the 

 instinctive love of our race toward the neigh- 

 bourhood of verdure and shade, toward 

 whatever vegetation conditions of tempera- 

 ture and climate begot. 



"God Almighty," says Bacon, "first planted a 

 garden ; and, indeed, it is the purest of human plea- 

 sures ; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of 

 man ; without which buildings and palaces are but 

 gross handy-works ', and a man shall ever see that, 



