22 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



other birds of song, with their bills peck the flowers out of the 

 neighbouring fields, and drop them on their heads ; thus are they 

 crowned with perpetual garlands ; their manner of perfuming 

 them is this ; the clouds suck up the scented oils from the 

 fountains and rivers, and the winds gently fanning them, distil it 

 like soft dew on those who are assembled there ; at supper they 

 have music also, and singing, particularly the verses of Homer, 

 who is himself generally at the feast, and sits next above Ulysses, 

 with a chorus of youths and virgins : he is led in, accompanied 

 by Eunomus the Locrian, Arion of Lesbos, Anacreon and 

 Stesichorus, whom I saw there along with them, and who at 

 length is reconciled to Helen : when they have finished their 

 songs, another chorus begins of swans, swallows, and nightingales ; 

 and to these succeeds the sweet rustling of the Zephyrs, that 

 whistle through the woods, and close the concert. What most 

 contributes to their happiness is, that near the symposium are 

 two fountains, the one of milk, the other of pleasure ; from the 

 first they drink at the beginning of the feast, there is nothing 

 afterwards but joy and festivity. 1 * True History ' (Dr Francklirfs 

 Translation]. 



W ] 



PALLADIUS Palladius lived about time of Theodosius, wrote ' De Re Rustica ' in fourteen 

 t j, ]E books, a compilation from writers like Columdla or Gargilius : Book L contains 



C t* r } general rules about Agriculture the next twelve are devoted to agricultural 



work of each month Book XIV. in elegiac verse, on grafting trees : much 

 used in Middle Ages, and the ' Speculum ' of Vincent de Beattvais borrows 

 largely from it. 



1TH orchard, and with gardeyne, or with mede, 



Se that thyne hous with hem be umviroune ; 

 The side in longe upon the south thou sprede, 

 The cornel ryse upon the wynter sonne, 

 And gire it from the cold West yf thou conne. 



The Middle English translation, * Palladius on Htisbon- 

 drie] from the unique MS. of about 1420 A.D. in 

 Colchester Castle. English Text Society. 



1 Bottiger sees in this hyperbole a parody on the prodigies of Homer's 

 Garden of Alcinous ( { Racemazionen zur Gartenknnst der Alien '). 



