AND CELEBRATED GARDENS 



of the garden wherein Fiametto and her companions took refuge, 

 and which he likened to a Paradise on earth have almost their 

 counterpart in Chaucer's " Romaunt of the Rose," in which he 

 describes : 



A " garden fair to see," bounded by a high, embattled wall, 

 and entered only by " a wicked smal. ..." 



" So fair it was, that trusteth wel 

 It seemed a place esperitual 

 For certes ! as at my devys 

 There is no place in Paradys 

 So good in for to dwelle or be 

 As in that garden thoughte me." 



He describes the concert of the birds the nightingale, the 

 finch, the laverock (sky lark), the throstle, the mavis, and the 

 turtle, each one seeking to eclipse the other in the sweetness of 

 its song truly a chorus known to few foreign lands. He tells 

 us also of another garden : 



" A garden saw I, full of bloomy bowes 

 Upon a river in a grene mede . . . 

 With flowers whyte, blew, yeloe and rede." 



The poet of the " Canterbury Tales " died in 1400, and thirty- 

 seven years later another British singer, James I. of Scotland, fell 

 by the hands of assassins at Perth. His poetic genius was of no 

 mean order, but I fear Scotland may scarcely claim him exclusively, 

 since it was nurtured in England, where he was a captive for nineteen 

 years. From his prison at Windsor he beheld the fair young 

 daughter of the Earl of Sussex walking in the garden below, and 

 fell in love with her. She ultimately became his Queen. 



In his beautiful poem, " The King's Quhair," he describes the 

 garden : 



" So thick the boughis and the leavis greene 



Beshaded all the alleys that there were, 



And mids of every arbour might be seen 



The sharp greene sweete juniper, 



Growing so fair with branches here and there. 



" And on the smalle greene twistie sat 

 The little nightingale and sung 

 So loud and clear, the hymis consecrat 

 Of lovis use, now soft, now loud, the wallis rung 

 Right of their song." 



3 I* 



