Francis Bacon - The Essays 1601
OF GARDENS
God Almighty planted a garden.
And indeed it is
the purest of human pleasures.
It is the greatest
refreshment to the spirits of man; without which,
buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks;
and a man shall ever see,
that when ages grow
to civility and 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,
and 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; lavender; periwinkle, the white, the purple, and the blue; germander; flags; orange-trees; lemon-trees; and myrtles,
if they be stoved; and sweet marjoram, warm set. There followeth,
for the latter part
of January and February, the mezereon-tree, which then blossoms; crocus vernus,
both the yellow and the grey; primroses; anemones; the early tulippa; hyacinthus orientalis; chamairis; fritellaria. For March, there come violets,
specially the single blue,
which are the earliest; the yellow daffodil; the daisy; the almond-tree in blossom; the peach-tree in blossom; the cornelian-tree in blossom; sweet-briar.
In April follow the double white violet; the wallflower; the stock-gilliflower; the cowslip; flower-delices,
and lilies of all natures; rosemary-flowers; the tulippa; the double peony; the pale daffodil; the French honeysuckle; the cherry-tree in blossom;
the damson and plum-trees in blossom;
the white thorn in leaf; the lilac-tree.
In May and June
come pinks of all sorts, specially the blushpink;
roses of all kinds, except the musk, which comes later; honeysuckles; strawberries; bugloss; columbine; the French marigold, flos Africanus; cherry-tree in fruit; ribes; figs in fruit; rasps; vineflowers; lavender in flowers; the sweet satyrian,
with the white flower; herba muscaria; lilium convallium; the apple-tree in blossom.
In July come gilliflowers of all varieties; musk-roses; the lime-tree in blossom;
early pears and plums in fruit; jennetings, codlins.
In August come plums
of all sorts in fruit; pears; apricocks; berberries; filberds; musk-melons; monks-hoods, of all colors.
In September come grapes; apples;
poppies of all colors; peaches; melocotones; nectarines; cornelians; wardens; quinces.
In October and the
beginning of November come services; medlars; bullaces;
roses cut or removed to come late; hollyhocks; and such like.
These particulars are for
the climate of London;
but my meaning is perceived,
that you may have ver perpetuum,
as the place affords.
And because the breath
of flowers is far
sweeter in the air (where
it comes and goes
like the warbling of music)
than in the hand,
therefore nothing is more
fit for that delight,
than to know what
be the flowers and
plants that do best perfume the air. Roses, damask and red,
are fast flowers of their smells;
so that you may
walk by a whole row of them,
and find nothing of their sweetness;
yea though it be in a moming's dew.
Bays likewise yield no
smell as they grow. Rosemary little; nor sweet marjoram.
That which above all
others yields the sweetest
smell in the air is the violet,
specially the white double violet,
which comes twice a year;
about the middle of April, and about Bartholomew-tide.
Next to that is the musk-rose. Then the strawberry-leaves dying,
which yield a most excellent cordial smell.
Then the flower of 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 parlor or lower chamber window.
Then pinks and gilliflowers,
especially the matted pink and clove gilliflower.
Then the flowers of the lime-tree. Then the honeysuckles,
so they be somewhat afar off.
Of beanflowers 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 watermints.
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 princelike,
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 carpenter's 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 colored 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 carpenter's 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 carpenter's work;
and upon the upper hedge, over every arch, a little turret, 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 colored 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 hither 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 carpenter's work.
I would also have the alleys, spacious and fair.
You may have 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 so to convey the water,
as it never stay,
either in the bowls
or in the cistern;
that the water be
never by rest discolored,
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 colored glass,
and such things of lustre;
encompassed also with fine
rails of low statuas.
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. 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 are in 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 bear's-foot:
and the like low flowers,
being withal sweet and sightly.
Part of which heaps,
are to be with
standards of little bushes
pricked upon their top, and part without.
The standards to be roses; juniper; hory; berberries (but here and there,
because of the smell of their blossoms); red currants; gooseberries; rosemary; bays; sweetbriar; 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 fill
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 arbors 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 platform 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.
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