MCMII.

Original ornamented pages

OD almighty first planted a garden: and indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment of the spirits of man; without which, buildings or palaces are but gross handy-works: and a man shall ever see, that when ages grow to civility or elegancy, 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 of beauty may be then in season. For December and January, or 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,6 lavender, periwinkle (th. . . Read More