GENTLEMEN ADVENTURERS 47 
preferred rather than “an orbicular, or triangular or 
an oblong,” was “because it doth best agree with man’s 
dwelling.” Invariably they were enclosed, sometimes 
with brick or stone, sometimes with a paling, again 
with a hedge. Brick or stone walls were usually cov¬ 
ered with rosemary, which is one of the things that 
Josselyn, writing from New England, says “is no 
plant for this country.” This popular usage of it at 
home accounts for his special mention of it as unfit 
here. It quite possibly may have been in some Vir¬ 
ginia gardens, however. 
The terraces were sometimes retained by a stone 
wall; or again they were simply the grassed slope 
which we commonly see now. In either event they 
were broad and splendid, and afforded delightful 
loitering-spots where the garden’s beauties could be 
enjoyed. The open walks were made of gravel, sand 
or turf, usually, though some were planted with fra¬ 
grant herbs,” “burnet, wild thyme and water mint” 
being pronounced by Bacon the choicest of all when 
trodden on. “Shade alleys” also sometimes ran beside 
the gardens, and a walk between high clipped hedges, 
or between its wall and a hedge, was often introduced. 
These, being less open to sun and air, were always of 
gravel or sand. 
We have all, I think, fallen into the error of sup¬ 
posing that the designs executed in boxwood and com- 
