The Magical Gardens: The Garden of Euphues

This is a medieval theme. The magical gardens of the poets in the Middle Ages were commonly in full bloom irrespective of season, but Bacon outlines realistically the pleasures each month shall bring: for November, December and January there are the evergreens, holly, ivy, bay, yew, rosemary, lavender; for January and February daphne mezereum, crocus, primrose, anemone, the early tulip, hyacinth, fritillary; for March violet, daffodil, daisy, almond, peach, sweetbrier; in April wallflower, stock, cowslip, lily, peony and lilac; May and June have the fullest list and in July after gilliflower, rose, and the lime tree in blossom, he begins to list fruit, and from now until the end of the year we hear no more of flowers save poppies, hollyhocks, monkshoods and roses, but our delight must come from fruit and nuts and foliage. Second to these pleasures of the eye are the perfumes: `strawberry leaves dying, which yield a most excellent cordial smell'; `wallflowers which are very delightful to be set under a parlour or lower chamber window'; "honeysuckles so they be somewhat far off'; and certain plants, burnet, wild thyme, and watermints, which are `fast of their smell' . . . `therefore you are to set whole alleys of them to have the pleasure when you walk or tread'. It is only when these delights have been spoken of that Bacon turns to the composition of the whole. This is not only the Englishman speaking with a native love of natural beauty, but it is the Middle Ages still entering into a close and intimate relationship with material things. The plan when he comes to it is an enlightened one, well thought out and clearly related to de Calm's garden at Wilton, which was constructed less than twenty years after this essay was published.