2 
SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
When Europe and the West were far behind the 
East in social progress, much that we look upon 
with pride to-day in the twentieth century a.d. was 
known, utilized, and loved in the twentieth century 
b.c. The gardens of Babylon and Nineveh were 
grand in their beauty, while in Egypt the worship 
of the Ka itself was indissolubly bound up with 
that of the presiding goddess of trees, and we can 
look kindly on the imagination which conjured up, 
out of the shady depths of the sycamore or the 
slender glories of the palm, a Divine emanation. 
If we read the hieroglyphs aright, to deck their 
gardens the Egyptians exacted as tribute from dis¬ 
tant regions rare and beautiful plants. Some, such 
as the anemone and bay-tree, were special favourites; 
and in the gardens of the wealthy the shrine of 
Khem rose amid her shady avenues, aromatic herbs, 
and variegated flowers, in much the same way as 
the (t garden-house ” of an Elizabethan garden did in 
Shakespeare’s day. 
While these nations were at their mightiest zenith 
of power and influence, Asiatic pressure forced the 
neolithic farmers and herdsmen of the Stone Age 
through Northern and Central Europe, bringing 
with them the knowledge of the cultivation of 
plants for food, medicine, and, perchance, even for 
decoration; and as tools improved and knowledge 
extended, so more and ever more horticulture and 
agriculture flourished side by side. In Roman 
Britain, although an extreme province of that 
mighty Empire, villas arose, modelled on the 
sumptuous edifices that decked the valleys of 
the Adriatic or the hills about Tivoli; and can we 
doubt that, as the Northern provincials copied 
hypocaust and pavement, so they copied the 
garden, with its dainty flowers and vines, its 
fountains and statues, its marble benches and 
