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OF GARDENS.
AN ESSAY, BY FRANCIS
BACON.
LONDON
HACON AND RICKETTS
CRAVEN ST., STRAND.
MCMII.
OF GARDENS,
AN ESSAY BY FRANCIS LORD BACON
OD almighty first planted a garden: and indeed it is thepurest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshmentof the spirits of man; without which, buildings orpalaces are but gross handy-works: and a man shall eversee, that when ages grow to civility or elegancy, mencome to build stately, sooner than to garden finely,as if gardening were the greater perfection. I do holdit, in the royal ordering of gardens, there ought tobe gardens for all the months in the year: in which,severally, things of beauty may be then in season. ForDecember and January, or the latter part of November, youmust take such things as are green all winter; holly,ivy, bays, juniper, cypress-trees, yew, pine-apple trees,fir trees, rosemary,6 lavender, periwinkle (the white, the purple, and the blue),germander, flags, orange trees, lemon trees, and myrtles, if they bestoved, and sweet marjoram, warm set. There followeth, for the latterpart of January and February, the mezereon tree, which then blossoms;crocus vernus, both the yellow and the gray; primroses, anemonies, theearly tulip, hyacinthus orientalis, chamaïris, fritellaria. For Marchthere come violets, especially the single blue, which are the earliest;the yellow daffodil, the daisy, the almond tree in blossom, the peachtree in blossom, the cornelian tree in blossom, sweet briar. In Aprilfollow the double white violet, the wallflower7the stock-gilliflower,the cowslip, f