192 Gleanings in Old Garden Literature. 



the same regularity. 'Leisure, 'as Milton expressed 

 it, 



* ... In trim gardens took his pleasure. ' 



In the garden of Marshal de Biron at Paris, con- 

 sisting of fourteen acres, every walk is buttoned on 

 each side by lines of flower-pots, which succeed in 

 their seasons. When I saw it, there were nine 

 thousand pots of Asters, or La Reine Marguerite.' 1 '' 



Walpole pays a high tribute to the picture 

 which Milton draws in the Paradise Lost of 

 the Garden of Eden ; but, as I have stated, 

 he detects in it a resemblance to the gardens 

 at Hagley and Stourhead, and even suspects 

 that the blind bard had in his recollection 

 the beauties of Theobalds and Nonsuch. 

 Although, however, Walpole does justice to 

 Milton, he was not sorry, I believe, to pass 

 from him to Sir William Temple. It was a 

 more congenial atmosphere. Temple was 

 only, it is true, " an excellent man ; " but he 

 was a man nearer to Walpole's time, and 

 nearer also to Walpole's heart. He quotes 

 with enthusiasm his account of the garden 

 at Moor Park, in Hertfordshire, designed 

 under the eye of the Countess of Bedford, 



