and crushed, are three; that is, burnet,1 wild-thyme,2 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 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 side; and twelve to the main garden. The green hath two pleasures: the

1Burnet. The popular name of plants belonging to the genera Sanguisorba and Poterium, of the Rosaceae, of which the Great or Common Burnet (Sanguisorba Oficinalis) 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.

2 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.

8 Heath.

"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.

A part of a garden left more or less in a wild state; now called a 'wilderness.'

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 1 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 2 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 1 Covert. Covered.

2 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.

I intend to be raised upon a bank, not steep, but gently slope,1 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 2 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, or full of work. Wherein I, for

1 Slope.

2 Let.

Sloping.

To hinder; to prevent.

"No spears were there the shock to let."

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

8 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.

my part, do not like images cut out in juniper or other garden stuff; they be for children. Little low hedges, round, like welts,1 with some pretty pyramides, I like well; and in some places, fair columns upón 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; 2 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. cleansed every day by the

Besides that, it is to be hand. Also some steps

1 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.

2 Embossment.

A bulging, or protuberance,

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 curiosity1 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 under ground, 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

1 Curiosity. Careful or elaborate workmanship; elegance.