MEDIÆVAL GARDENS
cold stone wall, by night he gazed at the stars, by day at the garden. And weary and woe-begone as he was, he says, "to look, it did me good."
Now there was made fast by the tower wall
A garden fair, and in the corners set
A herbere green, with wands so long and small
Railed all about: and so with trees close set
Was all the place, and hawthorn hedges knit
That no one though he were near walking by
Might there within scarce any one espy.
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So thick the branches and the leafage green
Beshaded all the alleys that there were,
And 'midst of ev'ry herbere might be seen
The sharp and green sweet-scented juniper,
Growing so fair with branches here and there,
That, as it seemed to any one without,
The branches spread the herbere all about.
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And on the slender green-leaved branches sat
The little joyous nightingales, and sang
So loud and clear, the carols consecrat
To faithful love.[1]
This "garden fair" was the scene of the romance which solaced this royal prisoner, and helped him to bear his irksome lot, and to be able to exclaim, after nearly eighteen years' captivity a captivity since boyhood:
Thanks be to the massive castle wall,
From which I eagerly looked forth and leant.
Looking from his window he espied, notwithstanding "hawthorne hedges" and "beshaded alleys," Lady Johanna Beaumont (whom he wedded on his release) walking in the garden. Neither poet nor historian tells how they found
- ↑ King's Quair, verse 31 seq.
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