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. Therefore, you are to set whole alleys of them, to
have the pleasure where you walk or tread." Sir William Temple says
Epicurus studied, exercised, and taught his philosophy in his garden.
Milton, we know, passed many hours together in his garden at Chalfont;
Cowley poured forth the greatness of his soul in his rural retreat
at Chertsey; and Lord Shaftesbury wrote his "Characteristics," at
a delightful spot near Reigate. Pope, in one of his letters, says,
"I am in my garden, amused and easy; this is a scene where one finds no
disappointment;"--and within the same neighbourhood, Thomson

"Sung the Seasons and their change."