The Essays of Francis Bacon/XLVI Of Gardens

by Francis Bacon

XLVI. Of Gardens.

God Almighty first planted a Garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man;^[1] without which buildings and palaces are but gross handyworks: and a man shall ever see that when ages grow to civility^[2] and elegancy,^[3] men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely; as if gardening were the greater perfection. 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^[4] of beauty may be then in season. For December, and January, and the latter part of November, you must take such things as are green all winter: holly; ivy; bays; juniper; cypress-trees; yew; pine-apple-trees; fir-trees; rosemary; lavender;^[5] periwinkle, the white, the purple, and the blue; germander;^[6] flags; orange-trees; lemon trees; and myrtles, if they be stoved;^[7] and sweet marjoram, warm set. There followeth, for the latter part of January and February, the mezereon-tree^[8] which then blossoms; crocus vernus, both the yellow and the grey; primroses; anemones; the early tulippa; hyacynthus orientalis;^[9] chamaïris;^[10] fritellaria.^[11] For March, there come violets, specially the single blue, which are the earliest; the yellow daffodil; the daisy; the almond-tree in blossom; the peach-tree in blossom; the cornelian-tree^[12] in blossom; sweet-briar. In April follow, the double white violet; the wall-flower; the stock-gilliflower;^[13] the cowslip; flower-de-lices,^[14] and lilies of all natures; rosemary-flowers; the tulippa; the double piony; the pale daffodil; the French honeysuckle; the cherry-tree in blossom; the dammasin^[15] and plum-trees in blossom; the white thorn in leaf; the lilac-tree. In May and June come pinks of all sorts, specially the blush-pink; roses of all kinds, except the musk, which comes later; honeysuckles; strawberries; bugloss; columbine; the French marigold; flos Africanus;^[16] cherry-tree in fruit; ribes;^[17] figs in fruit; rasps;^[18] vine-flowers; lavender in flowers; the sweet satyrian,^[19] with the white flowers; herba muscaria;^[20] lilium convallium;^[21] the apple-tree in blossom. In July come gilliflowers of all varieties; musk-roses; the lime-tree in blossom; early pears and plums in fruit; genitings,^[22] quadlins.^[23] In August come plums of all sorts in fruit; pears; apricocks;^[24] berberries;^[25] filberds; musk-melons; monks-hoods,^[26] of all colours. In September come grapes; apples; poppies of all colours; peaches; melocotones;^[27] nectarines;^[28] cornelians; wardens;^[29] quinces. In October, and the beginning of November come services;^[30] medlars;^[31] bullaces;^[32] roses cut or removed to come late; holly-oaks;^[33] and such like. These particulars are for the climate of London; but my meaning is perceived, that you may have ver perpetuum,^[34] as the place affords.

And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music) 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^[35] flowers of their smells; so that you may walk by a whole row of them, and find nothing of their sweetness; yea^[36] though it be in a morning's dew. Bays^[37] likewise yield no smell as they grow. Rosemary little; nor sweet marjoram.^[38] That which above all others yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violet, specially the white double violet, which comes twice a year; about the middle of April, and about Bartholomew-tide.^[39] Next to that is the musk-rose. Then the strawberry-leaves dying, with a most excellent cordial smell. Then the flower 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-briar. Then wall-flowers, which are very delightful to be set under a parlour or lower chamber window. Then pinks and gilliflowers,^[40] specially the matted pink and clove gilliflower. Then the flowers of the lime-tree. Then the honeysuckles, so they be somewhat afar off. Of beanflowers^[41] 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, burnet,^[42] wild-thyme,^[43] and watermints. 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^[44] 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^[45] 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 enclose 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 thorough the green, therefore you are, of either side the green, to plant a covert^[46] alley, upon carpenter's work, about twelve foot in height, by which you may go in shade into the garden. As for the making of knots^[47] 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 see 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, and six foot broad; and the spaces between of the same dimension with 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,^[48] 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 covert alleys of the green may deliver you. But there must be no alleys with hedges at either end of this great enclosure; not at the hither end, for letting your prospect upon this fair hedge from the green; nor at the further end, for letting^[49] your prospect from the hedge through the arches upon the heath.

For the ordering of the ground within the great hedge, I leave it to variety of device; advising nevertheless that whatsoever form you cast it into, first, it be not too busy,^[50] or full of work. Wherein I, for my part, do not like images cut out in juniper or other garden stuff; they be for children. Little low hedges, round, like welts,^[51] with some pretty pyramides, I like well; and in some places, fair columns upon frames of carpenter's work. I would also have the alleys spacious and fair. You may have closer alleys upon the side grounds, but none in the main garden. I wish also, in the very middle, a fair mount, with three ascents, and alleys, enough for four to walk abreast; which I would have to be perfect circles, without any bulwarks or embossments;^[52] and the whole mount to be thirty foot high; and some fine banqueting-house, with some chimneys neatly cast, and without too much glass.

For fountains they are a great beauty and refreshment; but pools mar all, and make the garden unwholesome, and full of flies and frogs. Fountains I intend to be of two natures: the one that sprinkleth or spouteth water; the other a fair receipt of water, of some thirty or forty foot square, but without fish, or slime, or mud. For the first, the ornaments of images gilt, or marble, which are in use, do well: but the main matter is so to convey the water, as it never stay, either in the bowls or in the cistern; that the water be never by rest discoloured, green or red or the like; or gather any mossiness or putrefaction. Besides that, it is to be cleansed every day by the hand. Also some steps up to it, and some fine pavement about it, doth well. As for the other kind of fountain, which we may call a bathing pool, it may admit much curiosity^[53] and beauty; wherewith we will not trouble ourselves: as, that the bottom be finely paved, and with images; the side likewise; and withal embellished with coloured glass, and such things of lustre; encompassed also with fine rails of low statua's. But the main point is the same which we mentioned in the former kind of fountain; which is, that the water be in perpetual motion, fed by a water higher then the pool, and delivered into it by fair spouts, and then discharged away underground, by some equality of bores, that it stay little. And for fine devices, of arching water without spilling, and making it rise in several forms (of feathers, drinking glasses, canopies, and the like), they be pretty things to look on, but nothing to health and sweetness.

For the heath, which was the third part of our plot, I wish it to be framed, as much as may be, to a natural wildness. Trees I would have none in it, but some thickets made only of sweet-briar and honeysuckle, and some wild vine amongst; and the ground set with violets, strawberries, and primroses. For these are sweet, and prosper in the shade. And these to be in the heath, here and there, not in any order. I like also little heaps, in the nature of mole-hills (such as are in wild heaths), to be set, some with wild thyme; some with pinks; some with germander, that gives a good flower to the eye; some with periwinkle; some with violets; some with strawberries; some with cowslips; some with daisies; some with red roses; some with lilium convallium; some with sweet-williams red; some with bear's-foot:^[54] and the like low flowers, being withal sweet and sightly. Part of which heaps are to be with standards of little bushes pricked upon their top, and part without. The standards to be roses; juniper; holly; berberries; (but here and there, because of the smell of their blossom;) red currants; gooseberry; rosemary;^[55] bays; sweet-briar; and such like. But these standards to be kept with cutting, that they grow not out of course.

For the side grounds, you are to fill them with variety of alleys, private, to give a full shade, some of them, wheresoever the sun be. You are to frame some of them likewise for shelter, that when the wind blows sharp, you may walk as in a gallery. And those alleys must be likewise hedged at both ends, to keep out the wind; and these closer alleys must be ever finely gravelled, and no grass, because of going^[56] wet. In many of these alleys likewise, you are to set fruit-trees of all sorts; as well upon the walls as in ranges. And this would be generally observed, that the borders wherein you plant your fruit-trees be fair and large, and low, and not steep; and set with fine flowers, but thin and sparingly, lest they deceive^[57] the trees. At the end of both the side grounds, I would have a mount of some pretty height, leaving the wall of the enclosure breast high, to look abroad into the fields.

For the main garden, I do not deny but there should be some fair alleys ranged on both sides, with fruit-trees; and some pretty tufts of fruit-trees, and arbours with seats, set in some decent order; but these to be by no means set too thick; but to leave the main garden so as it be not close, but the air open and free. For as for shade, I would have you rest upon the alleys of the side grounds, there to walk, if you be disposed, in the heat of the year or day; but to make account that the main garden is for the more temperate parts of the year; and in the heat of summer, for the morning and the evening, or overcast days.

For aviaries, I like them not, except they be of that largeness as they may be turfed, and have living plants and bushes set in them; that the birds may have more scope, and natural nestling, and that no foulness appear in the floor of the aviary. So I have made a platform of a princely garden, partly by precept, partly by drawing, not a model, but some general lines of it; and in this I have spared for no cost. But it is nothing for great princes, that for the most part taking advice with workmen, with no less cost set their things together; and sometimes add statua's, and such things, for state and magnificence, but nothing to the true pleasure of a garden.

1. "Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen,
   Delightful industry enjoy'd at home,
   And Nature, in her cultivated trim
   Dress'd to his taste, inviting him abroad—
   Can he want occupation who has these?"
   

   Cowper. The Task. Book III. The Garden.

2. Civility. Civilization.
3. Elegancy. Elegance.

4. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
   

   John Keats. Endymion. Line 1.

5. Lavender. One of the Labiatae or mints, Lavandula Vera, a small shrub with small pale lilac-colored flowers, and narrow oblong or lanceolate leaves. It is a native of the south of Europe and northern Africa, but is extensively cultivated in other countries for its perfume.

   "Here 's flowers for you;
   Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram;
   The marigold, that goes to bed wi' th' sun
   And with him rises weeping: these are flowers
   Of middle summer."
   

   Shakspere. The Winter's Tale. iv. 3.

6. Germander. A plant of the genus Teucrium, as Teucrium Canadense, American germander, or wood sage. Bacon probably means the Teucrium Scorodonia, or wood germander, which was cultivated in old English gardens. Its blossoms are yellowish-white, in terminal racemes.
7. Stove. To keep warm in a house or room by artificial heat; as, to 'stove' orange trees.
8. Mezereon-tree. The Mezereum is a species of small erect or trailing shrubs of the order Thymeleaceae. The best known representative of the family in cultivation is Daphne Mezereum, a small shrub with sweet white flowers that bloom in December in greenhouses.
9. Hyacinthus orientalis. The common hyacinth, which came originally from the Levant.
10. Chamaïris. There are but two irises native to England, and one of them is an aquatic plant. The other one, Iris Foetidissima, may be what is called here chamaïris; it is a blue iris. Possibly chamairïs is Iris Reticulata, one of the earliest irises cultivated in England. But the Elizabethans cultivated many varieties of iris.
11. Fritellaria. A genus of liliaceous plants, the best known species of which are the Crown Imperial (Fritellaria Imperialis), and the Common Fritellary or Snakeshead (Fritellaria Meleagris), England. The Crown Imperial is a native of Persia, and was introduced into the royal garden at Vienna about 1576. It is said to have arrived in England shortly afterwards. It was therefore a new flower to both Bacon and Shakspere, and they could only have seen it in some choice garden.
12. Cornelian-tree. The cornel-tree, or cornelian cherry.
13. Stock-gilliflower. This is the White Stock (Matthiola Incana).

14. "Now, my fair'st friend,
    I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might
    Become your time of -day;—and yours, and yours,
    That wear upon your virgin branches yet
    Your maidenhoods growing:—O Proserpina,
    For th' flowers now, that, frighted, thou lett'st fall
    From Dis's wagon! golden daffodils,
    That come before the swallow dares, and take
    The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
    But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes
    Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses,
    That die unmarried, ere they can behold
    Bright Phoebus in his strength,—a malady
    Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and
    The crown-imperial; lilies of all kinds,
    The flower-de-luce being one!"
    

    Shakspere. The Winter's Tale. iv. 3.

    Flower-de-lices. Since both Bacon and Shakspere refer to the flower-de-luce as a lily, it is clear that for them the iris had not yet wholly appropriated the name. Their fleur-de-lis may have been the same as Chaucer's, the Lilium Candidum, the common white lily. "His nekke whit was as the flour-de-lys," Chaucer writes of the singing friar. The Prologue. 238.
15. Dammasin. The damson plum-tree. The damson is a small black or dark purple plum, the fruit of Prunus Communis, or Domestica. The particular variety, Damascena, was introduced in very early times into Greece and Italy from Syria.
    

    "Gloster. Mass, thou lovedst plums well, that wouldst venture so.
    Simpcox. Alas, good master, my wife desired some damsons,
    And made me climb, with danger of my life."
    

    Shakspere. II. King Henry VI. ii. 1.

16. Flos Africanus. The Latin translation reads Flos Africanus, simplex et multiplex, and omits "the French marigold." It would seem then that by Flos Africanus, or 'African flower,' Bacon meant the African marigold (Tagetes Erecta); the French marigold is Tagetes Patula. Or possibly, the French marigold was called the 'African flower' in Bacon's time, and the modern punctuation is at fault. Shakspere's "marigold that goes to bed wi' th' sun" was a different flower, Calendula Officinalis, one of the Compositae. It is a common flower in country gardens, of a deep yellow color; the name, Calendula, means 'little calendar,' or 'little weather-glass,' referring to its opening with the sun and shutting with the dew.
17. Ribes. Currants.
18. Rasps. Raspberries.
19. Satyrian. Satyreia Hortensis, or Summer Savory, a low and homely sweet herb, with pale or purplish flowers. Like lavender, sweet marjoram, and other aromatic herbs, it is used in English gardens in mass to fill a border. The border in an English garden needs to be filled, because it is not the mere edge of a flower-bed; it is a strip of ground, often several feet wide, forming a fringe to the general area within laid out in flower-plots, or otherwise, and separated from it by a path.
20. Herba muscaria. Muscari Botryoides, the Grape-Hyacinth, or Globe-Hyacinth, of the Lily family, a common little garden flower of early spring, with a dense raceme of dark blue flowers, like a minute cluster of grapes. It is now naturalized in the United States.
21. Lilium convallium. The convall lily, convally; lily of the valley.
22. Jenneting. Genitings. Apparently from the French Jean or Jeannet, in pomme de Saint-Jean, "S. John's apple, a kind of soone-ripe Sweeting." Cotgrave. A kind of early apple.

    "Yet, tho' I spared thee all the spring,
    Thy sole delight is, sitting still,
    With that cold dagger of thy bill,
    To fret the summer jenneting."
    

    Tennyson. The Blackbird. Stanza 3.

23. Quadlin, or Codling, codlin. The codling is a variety of apple in shape elongated and rather tapering towards the eye, having several sub-varieties, as Kentish codling, Keswick codling. "As a squash is before 't is a peascod, or a codling when 't is almost an apple." Shakspere. Twelfth Night. i. 5.
24. Apricocks. The fruit of the apricot, Prunus Armeniaca, or Armenian Plum. It is roundish-oval in shape, orange-colored, and has a delicious flavor.

    'Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
    With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries."
    

    Shakspere. A Midsummer-Night's Dream. iii. 1.

25. Berberry. The barberry (Berberis Vulgaris), commonly spelled and pronounced 'barberry.' It is a shrub that is found native in Europe and North America, with spiny shoots, and pendulous racemes of small yellow flowers, succeeded by oblong, red, sharply acid berries.
26. Monk's-hood. Aconite, of the Ranunculaceae, or Crowfoot family. In England monk's-hood is especially Aconitum Napellus, which is also called friar's-cap, fox-bane, helmet-flower, Jacob's chariot and wolf's-bane. Gray records two American aconites, Aconitum Uncinatum, or Wild Monk's-hood, with blue flowers, and Aconitum Reclinatum, or Trailing Wolf's-bane, with white flowers.
27. Melocotone. Melocoton, or Melocotoon, a large kind of peach. "A wife here with a strawberry breath, cherry lips, apricot cheeks, and a soft, velvet head, like a melicotton." Ben Jonson. Bartholomew Fair. i. 1.
28. Nectarine. A variety of the common peach, from which its fruit differs only in having a rind devoid of down, and a firmer pulp. Both fruits are sometimes found growing on the same tree.
29. Wardens. The warden is a large pear used chiefly for roasting or baking. Cotgrave defined this pear as "poire de garde, a warden, or winter peare, a peare which may be kept verie long."

    "I must have saffron to colour the warden-pies."
    

    Shakspere. The Winter's Tale. iv. 2.

30. Services. The fruit of Pyrus (Sorbus) Domestica, a tree that belongs to continental Europe. It grows from twenty to sixty feet high, has leaves like those of the mountain ash or rowan tree, and bears a small pear-shaped or apple-shaped fruit, which, like the medlar, is pleasant only in an over-ripe condition.
31. Medlars. The fruit of the medlar, a small bushy tree, Mespilus Germanica, related to the crab-apple, cultivated in gardens for its fruit. The fruit resembles a small, brown-skinned apple, but with a broad disk at the summit surrounded by the remains of the calix lobes. When first gathered, it is harsh and uneatable, but in the early stages of decay it acquires an acid flavor relished by some.
32. Bullaces. The wild plum (Prunus Insititia), larger than the sloe, well known in England as a semi-cultivated fruit; there are two varieties, the black or dark blue, and the white. Like the persimmon, the bullace is astringent until frost comes.
33. Holly-oaks. Hollyhocks (Althea Rosea), the well-known garden flower widely cultivated in many varieties, with showy blossoms of various tints of red, purple, yellow, and white.
34. Perpetual spring.
35. Fast. Firm; tenacious. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." I. Corinthians xvi. 13.
36. Yea. Not this alone; not only so, but also; what is more.

    "Many of you, yea, most, return no more."
    

    Tennyson. The Holy Grail.

37. Bay, also called Sweet Bay, the Laurus Nobilis, an arborescent shrub cultivated in English gardens, with deep green leaves and a profusion of dark purple berries. The leaves, when crushed or bruised give out the odor of cinnamon, and on this account, together with their beauty, they were used in olden times to garnish dishes for a banquet. The Bible refers to the very ancient superstition that the flourishing of the bay tree meant good, and its withering, evil.

    "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.

    "Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." Psalms xxxvii. 35 and 36.

38. Sweet marjoram. A plant of the mint family, Origanum Majorana, peculiarly aromatic and fragrant, flowers purplish pink.
39. St. Bartholomew's day, August 24 O. S.
40. Gilliflowers. Gillyflower is a name that has been applied to various plants whose blossoms smell like the clove (Old French, girofle, or clove), and especially to the clove-scented pink, Dianthus Caryophyllus, or Clove-gillyflower. The clove-gillyflower is the original of the carnation and other double pinks in cultivation, and it is the gillyflower of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspere, and Bacon.

    "The fair'st flowers o' the season
    Are our carnations, and streak'd gillyvors."
    

    Shakspere. The Winter's Tale. iv. 3.

    In those dialects in which the name gillyflower is still current, it is commonly applied, either to the Wall-flower (Cheiranthus Cheiri), or Wall-Gillyflower, or to the White Stock (Matthiola Incana), or Stock-Gillyflower. Bacon's garden contains all three, pinks, stocks, and wall-flowers. The wall-flower is a native of southern Europe, where its deep orange-yellow flowers light up old walls and cliffs. In cultivation, the flowers range in color from pale yellow to deep red, and are clustered in short racemes. Wall-flowers are "delightful to be set" under windows because of their sweet odor.

41. Bean-flower. Vicia Faba, or Faba Vulgaris, a bean which has been cultivated in England for centuries as food for cattle, just as Indian corn is grown in the United States. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1, Shakspere refers to "a fat and bean-fed horse."

    "Long let us walk,
    Where the breeze blows from yon extended field
    Of blossomed beans. Arabia cannot boast
    A fuller gale of joy, than, liberal, thence
    Breathes through the sense, and takes the ravish'd soul."
    

    James Thomson. The Seasons. Spring.

42. Burnet. The popular name of plants belonging to the genera Sanguisorba and Poterium, of the Rosaceae, of which the Great or Common Burnet (Sanguisorba Offlcinalis) is common, in England, on the meadows, and the Lesser or Salad Burnet (Poterium Sanguisorba) on the chalk. The Salad Burnet received its generic name from the fact that its leaves, which taste somewhat like cucumber, were formerly dropped into goblets of wine to flavor it before drinking.

    "That even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
    The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
    Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
    Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems
    But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
    Losing both beauty and utility."
    

    Shakspere. King Henry V. v. 1.

43. Wild-thyme. Thymus Serpyllum, Creeping Thyme, an inconspicuous plant, of the mint family, with flat green leaves and whitish or purplish flowers crowded at the ends of the branches, leaves and flowers both small. It is found growing in tufts on sunny hedgebanks, or in old fields.

    "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
    Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows;
    Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine,
    With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine."
    

    Shakspere. A Midsummer-Night's Dream. ii. 1.

44. Heath. A part of a garden left more or less in a wild state; now called a 'wilderness.'
45. Either. Each.
46. Covert. Covered.
47. Knot. A flower-bed laid out in a fanciful or intricate design; also, more generally, any laid-out garden plot; a flower-knot. "I must see what progress has been made with my rustic bridge—whether my terrace-walk has yet been begun—how speeds my bower—if my flower-knots are arranging according to rule." Susan Edmonstone Ferrier. The Inheritance. LXIX.
48. Slope. Sloping.
49. Let. To hinder; to prevent.

    "No spears were there the shock to let."
    

    Scott. The Lord of the Isles. VI. xxiii.

50. Busy. Bacon goes on to define the old meaning of busy here, "full of work," elaborate, such as "images cut out in juniper or other garden stuff." It is more than likely that Bacon had in mind his father's gardens at Gorhambury. Edmund Lodge, in his Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain, Vol. II., says of Sir Nicholas Bacon,—"He built a mansion on his estate of Redgrave, and another at Gorhambury, near St. Albans, to which last he added gardens of great extent, in the contrivance and decoration of which every feature of the bad taste of the time was abundantly lavished." Topiary work, or the clipping of trees, especially the juniper pine, into regular or fantastic shapes, was much practised by the old gardeners. Trees were cut into figures representing men, hats, umbrellas, jugs, bottles, candles, birds, mortars, corkscrews, and the like. H. Inigo Triggs, in his Formal Gardens in England and Scotland (1902), illustrates by some fine plates some of this old topiary work as it is still to be seen at Levens Hall, Westmorland, at Heslington Hall, Yorkshire, at Balcarres Castle, Fifeshire, and elsewhere.
    
    "I was led to a pretty garden, planted with edges of Alaternus, having at the entrance a skreene at an exceeding height, accurately cut in topiary worke, with well understood Architecture, consisting of pillars, niches, freezes, and other ornaments, with greate curiosity; some of the columns wreathed, others spiral, all according to art." John Evelyn. Diary. 25 March, 1644, written in Caen, France.
51. Welt. A border, or fringe. "Clap but a civil gown with a welt on the one, and a canonical cloke with sleeves on the other, and give them a few terms in their mouths, and if there comes not forth as able a doctor and complete a parson, for this turn, as may be wish'd, trust not my election." Ben Jonson. Epicoene; or, The Silent Woman. iv. 2.
52. Embossment. A bulging, or protuberance.
53. Curiosity. Careful or elaborate workmanship; elegance.
54. Bear's-foot. The popular name of various species of Hellebore; especially of the Black Hellebore (Helleborus Foetidus, Ranunculaceae, or Crowfoot family); it is a beautiful plant with spreading panicles of globular flowers, whose sepals are green edged with pink.

    "The late narcissus, and the winding trail
    Of bear's-foot, myrtles green, and ivy pale."
    

    Dryden. Georgics. Book IV. 184–185.

55. Rosemary. An evergreen shrub, Rosmarinus Officinalis, which is a native of southern Europe. The ancients associated the plant with the spray of the sea, whence the name ros marinus, literally 'sea-dew.' It has a beautiful azure-blue flower, and a most fragrant smell.

    "There 's rosemary, that 's for remembrance."
    

    Shakspere. Hamlet. iv. 2.

56. Go. To tend to; conduce.
57. Deceive. To cheat; defraud. "Wheresoever one plant draweth such a particular juice out of the earth, as it qualifieth the earth, so as that juice which remaineth is fit for the other plant; there the neighbourhood doth good; because the nourishments are contrary or several; but where two plants draw much the same juice, there the neighbourhood hurteth; for the one deceiveth the other." Bacon. Sylva Sylvarum. Century V. 479.