PROLOGUE 



T SHOULD not perhaps venture now for the first time to set 

 adrift upon the flowing tide of garden literature, old and new, 

 a volume such as this ; but when the first edition of ' The Praise 

 of Gardens' made its appearance fourteen years ago, it might 

 almost have claimed to be a pioneer in the revival of old garden 

 books. Imperfect as it was in execution, it sought to bring 

 together a series of prose passages giving an historical survey of 

 their delightful subject ; to show lovers of gardens and literature 

 alike that the title of the volume was meant in the good old wide- 

 embracing sense of Elizabethan days, when to praise a subject 

 was also to appraise and appreciate it. If that aim more nearly 

 hits the mark in the present edition, by means of the many 

 passages omitted and added, which fourteen years' further famili- 

 arity with the sources have suggested, the collection may better 

 deserve the eulogy, 'a scholarly little book,' passed upon its 

 infancy in all too indulgent and encouraging conversation by my 

 friend and master, Walter Pater. At least I trust that the unity 

 of its subject, garden-art or design, will in some degree fuse and 

 harmonise the variety of voices joining in the choir of praise. 



It is vain to expect that everyone will be satisfied with the 

 choice, and that all will find their favourite authors quoted or 

 their favourite gardens mentioned. Many will wonder why poetry 

 is so poorly represented, one reason perhaps being that poetry is 

 richer in flowers than in gardens, and it is with gardens as a 

 whole, rather than their contents, that this book is busy. Besides, 

 in a garden everyone is his or her own poet. Moreover, are 



