60 Gleanings in Old Garden Literature. 



graphical primarily, and Mr. Wright himself 

 points out that in one place he enumerates 

 among the birds which the fowler captures 

 in the wood, not only the eagle, which is 

 improbable enough, but the phoenix ! 



His twelfth-century labour is very instruc- 

 tive on many accounts ; but immediately it 

 transports us across seven centuries of spent 

 life into the remarkably comfortable quarters 

 at Paris of a very remote predecessor of Dr. 

 Johnson in the art of dictionary-making. 



The earlier portion of the Diary of Evelyn 

 may be consulted with advantage for a view 

 of the public and royal gardens, and private 

 pleasure-grounds, seen by him during his 

 continental tour. 



Of our own country the development in 

 the same respect was to some extent retarded 

 by the climate and the absence of native 

 talent for the purpose ; and information on 

 the state of ancient gardens, public and pri- 

 vate, is at first very scanty. Even Bacon, 

 though himself a gardener, does not allude 

 to this part of the matter in \\isLife of Henry 

 the Seventh. 



