Bacon as a Gardener. 91 



their lamentable curtailment, adorned his own 

 Inn of Court ; and doubtless the experi- 

 ments in horticulture which he reports in 

 the Sylva Sylvarum were made by himself 

 or under his auspices and direction at 

 Gorhambury. It is affecting, even at so 

 long a distance of time, to contemplate the 

 lifelong struggle for the mastery of universal 

 knowledge in the regions of philosophy and 

 science, and the indefatigable labours in- 

 volved even in arriving at the results, which 

 are presented to us in this volume. 



Bacon did not witness the appearance of 

 his Natural History in print, and from the 

 mode in which the text is arranged, it is 

 almost inferable that the editor is responsible 

 for the order of the contents. For the section 

 opens rather abruptly with an account of 

 tests made with various sorts of manure, as 

 regards their influence on crops : 



" There were sowen in a Bed, " the author tells 

 us, "Turnip-seed, Radish-seed, Wheat, Cuccumber- 

 seed, and Pease. The Bed we call a Hot-bed, and 

 the Manner of it is this. There was taken Horse-dung, 

 old, and well-rotted. This was laid upon a Banke, 



