6 BOOK OF OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS 



finished parterre," he was declaiming against — not with 

 — the fashion of his day. In truth there is no escape 

 from the fact that in old times, as they are at present, 

 real lovers of plants and of flowers for their own sakes 

 were few indeed. In the time of Elizabeth and then- 

 abouts, however, the gardening spirit seems to have 

 been purer and more wholesome than during the suc- 

 ceeding centuries. John Lyly, for instance, was, in 

 sentiment at least, a genuine old-fashioned " gar- 

 dener : — Heere be faire Roses, sweete Violets, 

 fragrant Primroses, heere wil be Jilly-floures, Carna- 

 tions, sops in wine, sweet Johns, and what may either 

 please you for sight, or delight you with savour." At 

 that time also was written what is perhaps the greatest 

 or at any rate one of the most important pronouncements 

 on gardening ever written — the essay*' Of Gardens," 

 by Lord Bacon. Here, indeed, is the real touch, the 

 genuine gardening spirit : I do hold it in the Royal 

 Ordering of Gardens, there ought to be Gardens for all 

 the Months in the year, in which, severally, things of 

 Beauty may be then in season;" and again, '* because 

 the Breath of Flowers is far Sweeter in the Air (where 

 it comes and goes, like the warbling of Musick), than in 

 the Hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that Delight, 

 than to know what be the Flowers and Plants that do 

 best perfume the Air. Roses, Damask and Red, are 

 fast Flowers of their Smells, so that you may walk by a 

 whole Row of them and find nothing of their sweet- 

 ness ; yea, though it be in a morning Dew. Bays like- 

 wise yield no smell 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 Strawberry 

 Leaves dying with a most excellent Cordial Smell. Then 



