which comes twice a year, ahout the middle of April and about Bartholomew-tide; next to that is the musk rose, then the strawberry leaves dying with a most excellent cordial smell, then the flower of the vines, it is a little dust like the dust of a bent, which grows upon the cluster in the first coming forth; then sweet-briar, then wall-flowers, which are very delightful to be set under a parlour or lower chamber window; then pinks and gilly-flowers, especially the matted pink and clove gilly-flower; then the flowers of the lime tree, then the honeysuckles, so they be somewhat afar off. Of bean flowers I speak not because they are field flowers. But those which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest but being trodden upon and crushed, are three, that is burnet, wild thyme, and water mints; 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 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 through the green, therefore you are of either side the green to plant a covert alley upon carpenters' work about twelve foot in height, by which you may go in shade into the garden. As for the making of knots 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 carpenters' 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 carpenters' work; and upon the upper hedge over every arch, a little turnet 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 I intend to be raised upon a bank, not steep but gently slope 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 higher end for letting your prospect upon this fair hedge from the green, nor at the further end for letting 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 my part, do not like images cut out in juniper or other garden stuff, they be for children. Little low hedges round like welts with some pretty pyramids, I like well; and in some places fair columns upon frames of carpenters' work. I would also have the alleys spacious and fair. You may bave 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, 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 of marble, which are in use, do well; but the main matter is, 80 to convey the water as it never stay either in the bowls or in the cistern, that the waters be never by rest discoloured, green or red, or the like, or gather any mossiness or putrefaction. Besides that it is to be cleansed every day by the hand, also some steps 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 curiosity and beauty, wherewith we will not trouble ourselves, as that the bottom be finely paved, and with images; the sides likewise, and withal embellished with coloured glass and such things of lustre ; encompassed also with fine rails of low statues. 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 than 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.

are in

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 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 periwinkle, some with violets, some with strawberries, some with cowslips, some with daisies, some with red roses, some with lilium convallium, some with sweet-williams red, some with bears'-foot, and the like low flowers, being withal sweet and sightly. Part of which heaps to be with standards of little bushes pricked upon their top, and part without; the standards to be roses, juniper, holly, harberries (but here and there, because of the smell of their blossom), red currants, gooseberries, rosemary, bays, sweet-briar, and such like. But these standards to be kept with cutting, that they grow not out of course.

For the side grounds you are to fit them with variety of alleys, private, to give a full shade, some of them, wheresoever the sun be. You are to frame some of them likewise for shelter, that when the wind blows sharp, you may walk as in a gallery. And those alleys must be likewise hedged at both ends to keep out the wind; and these closer alleys must be ever finely gravelled, and no grass because of going wet. In many of these alleys likewise, you are to set fruit trees of all sorts, as well upon the walls as in ranges. And this would be generally observed, that the borders wherein you plant your fruit trees, be fair and large, and low and not steep, and set with fine flowers, but thin and sparingly, lest they deceive the trees. At the end of both

the side grounds I would have a mount of some pretty height, leaving the wall of the enclosure breast high, to look abroad into the fields.

For the main garden I do not deny but there should be some fair alleys ranged on both sides with fruit trees, and some pretty tufts of fruit trees, and arbours with seats, set in some decent order; but these to be by no means set too thick, but to leave the main garden so as it be not close, but the air open and free; for as for shade, I would have you rest upon the alleys of the side grounds, there to walk, if you be disposed, in the heat of the year or day; but to make account that the main garden is for the more temperate parts of the year; and in the heat of summer, for the morning and the evening or overcast days.

For aviaries, I like them not, except they be of that largeness as they may be turfed, and have living plants and bushes set in them that the birds may have more scope and natural nestling, and that no foulness appear in the floor of the aviary. So I have made a plat-form of a princely garden, partly by precept, partly by drawing, not a model, but some general lines of it, and in this I have spared for no cost. But it is nothing, for great princes, that for the most part taking advice with workmen, with no less cost, set their things together, and sometimes add statuas and such things for state and magnificence, but nothing to the true pleasure of a garden.

The next six Essays, which are all short, were all in the first publication of 1597. The Forty-seventh, " Of Negotiating," concludes thus :

In dealing with cunning persons we must ever consider their ends to interpret their speeches, and it is good to say little to them, and that which they least look for. In all negotiations of difficulty a man may not look to sow and reap at once, but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.

And this is the close of the Forty-eighth, entitled "Of Followers and Friends:"

To take advice of some few friends is ever honourable; for lookers on, many times, see more than gamesters, and the vale best discovereth the hill. There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals, which was wont to be magnified. That that is, is between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other.

From the Forty-ninth, "Of Suitors," we select the following passage :—

Iniquum petas, ut æquum feras,* is a good rule where a man hath strength of favour, but otherwise a man were better rise in his suit; for he that would have ventured at first to have lost the suitor, will not in the conclusion lose both the suitor and his own former favour. Nothing is thought so easy a request to a great person, as his letter; and yet, if it be not in a good cause, it is so much out of his reputation. . . .

The Fiftieth is entitled "Of Studies;" here is part of it :

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. And therefore if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores.t...

The Fifty-first, "Of Faction," begins and ends as follows:

Many have an opinion, not wise, that for a prince to govern his estate, or for a great person to govern his proceedings, according to the respect to factions, is a principal part of policy; whereas contrariwise, the chiefest wisdom is either in ordering those things which are general and wherein men of several factions do nevertheless agree, or in dealing with correspondence to particular persons one by one.... When factions are carried too high and too violently, it is a sign of weakness in princes, and much to the prejudice both of their authority and business. The motions of factions under kings ought to be like the motions (as the astronoruers speak) of the inferior orbs, which may have their proper motions, but yet still are quietly carried by the higher motion of primum mobile.‡

And here are a few sentences from the Fifty-second, entitled "Of Ceremonies and Respects: "

* You may ask too much, in order to obtain a moderate boon + Studies become habits. The primary moving power.