ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



morning s dew. Bays likewise yield no sincll as they grow; rosemary 

 little; nor sweet marjoram. That which above all others yields the 

 sweetest smell in the air, is the violet ; especially the white double 

 violet, which comes twice a year, about the middle of April, and about 

 Bartholomew-tide. Next to that is the musk rose ; then the straw 

 berry leaves dying, with a most excellent cordial smell ; then the 

 (lower of the vines it is a little dust, like the dust of a bent, which 

 grows upon the cluster, in the first coming forth ; then sweet-brier ; 

 then wallflowers, which are very delightful, to be set under a parlour, or 

 lower chamber window; then pinks and gilliflowers, especially the 

 matted pink and clove-gilliflower ; then the flowers of the lime tree ; 

 then the honeysuckles, so they be somewhat afar off. Of bean-flowers 

 I speak not, because they are field flowers ; but those which perfume 

 the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but being trodden 

 upon and crushed, are three ; that is, burnct, wild thyme, and water 

 mints. Therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the 

 pleasure when you walk or tread. 



For gardens, speaking of those which are indeed prince-like, as we 

 have done of buildings, the contents ought not well to be under thirty 

 acres of ground, and to be divided into three parts : a green in the 

 entrance ; a heath or desert in the going forth ; and the main garden 

 in the midst ; besides alleys on both sides. And I like well, that four 

 acres of ground be assigned to the green, six to the heath, four and 

 four to either side, and twelve to the main garden. The green hath 

 two pleasures ; the one, because nothing is more pleasant to the eye 

 than green grass kept finely shorn ; the other, because it will give you 

 a fair alley in the midst ; by which you may go in front upon a stately 

 hedge, which is to inclose the garden. But because the alley will be 

 long, and in great heat of the year or day, you ought not to buy the 

 shade in the garden by going in the sun through the green; therefore 

 you are, of cither side the green, to plant a covert alley, upon carpen 

 ter s work, about twelve foot in height, by which you may go in shade 

 into the garden. As for the making of knots or figures, with divers 

 coloured earths, that they may lie under the windows of the house, on 

 that side which the garden stands, they be but toys ; you may sec as 

 good sights, many times, in tarts. The garden is best to be square, 

 encompassed on all the four sides with a stately arched hedge : the 

 arches to be upon pillars of carpenter s work, of some ten foot high, 

 ind six foot broad ; and the spaces between of the same dimension 

 vith the breadth of the arch. Over the arches let there be an entire 

 hedge, of some four foot high, framed also upon carpenter s work ; and 

 upon the upper hedge, over every arch, a little turret, with a belly 

 enough to receive a cage of birds ; and over every space between the 

 arches, some other little figure, with broad plates of round coloured 

 glass, gilt, for the sun to play upon. But this hedge I intend to be 

 raised upon a bank, not steep, but gently slope, of some six foot, set 

 all with flowers. Also I understand, that this square of the garden 

 should not be the whole breadth of the ground, but to leave on either 

 side ground enough for diversity of side alleys ; unto which the two 



