THE CHARM OF GARDENS 



easy for miracles, and talks as a gardener talks of strange 

 flowers and fruit, as of gourds that when they be ripe 

 " men cut them a-two, and men find within a little beast, 

 in flesh, and bone and blood, as though it were a little 

 lamb without wool. And men eat both the fruit and 

 the beast. And that is a great marvel." Then he writes 

 of the wonders of the country of Prester John, and of 

 trees there that men dare not eat of the fruit " for it is 

 a thing of faerie." 



Of Gatholonabes, he writes, and of the sham Garden of 

 Eden he made, and of the birds that " sing full delect- 

 ably and moved by craft." The fairest garden any man 

 might behold it was. And of the men and girls clothed 

 in cloths of gold full richly, that he said were angels. 



And of Paradise he cannot speak, making towards the 

 end of the book confession. 



" Of Paradise ne can I not speak properly. For I was 

 not there. It is far beyond. And that forthinketh 

 me. And also I was not worthy." 



And so, after a little more, ends Sir John, and so I end, 

 though I love him. Yet I doubt some of his stories. 



194 



