Andrew Marvell has, however, anathematized gardens with much severity,
in some lines entitled "The Mower against Gardens;" and commencing
thus:--
Luxurious man, to bring his vice in use,
Did after him the world seduce,
And from the fields the flowers and plants allure,
Where nature was most plain and pure.
He first enclos'd within the garden's square
A dead and standing pool of air;
And a more luscious earth from them did knead,
Which stupify'd them while it fed, &c.,
On the other side, old Gerarde asks his courteous and well-willing
readers--"Whither do all men walk for their honest recreation, but where
the earth has most beneficially painted her face with flourishing
colours? and what season of the year more longed for than the spring,
whose gentle breath entices forth the kindly sweets, and makes them
yield their fragrant smells." Lord Bacon, too, thus fondly dwells on
part of its allurements:--"That flower, which above all others yields
the sweetest smell in the air, is the violet. Next to that is the
musk-rose, then the strawberry leaves, dying with a most excellent
cordial smell. Then sweet briars, then wall flowers, which are very
delightful to be set under a parlour, or lower chamber window. But those
which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but
being trodden upon and crushed, are three, that is burner, wild thyme,
and water mints.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54