DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.50017#0117
THE GARDENS OF EPICURUS 37
groves for shade, some parts wild, some exact; and
fountains much in request among them.
But after so much ramble into ancient times, and
remote places, to return home and consider the present
way and humour of our gardening in England ; which
seem to have grown into such vogue, and to have
been so mightily improved in three or four and twenty
years of His Majesty’s reign, that perhaps few
countries are before us, either in the elegance of our
gardens, or in the number of our plants ; and I believe
none equals us in the variety of fruits, which may be
justly called good; and from the earliest cherry and
strawberry, to the last apples and pears, may furnish
every day of the circling year. For the taste and
perfection of what we esteem the best, I may truly
say, that the French, who have eaten my peaches and
grapes at Shene, in no very ill year, have generally
concluded, that the last are as good as any they have
eaten in France, on this side Fountainbleau ; and the
first as good as any they have eat in Gascony ; I mean
those which come from the stone, and are properly
called peaches, not those which are hard, and are
termed pavies; for these cannot grow in too warm a
climate, nor ever be good in a cold ; and are better at
Madrid, than in Gascony itself: Italians have agreed,
groves for shade, some parts wild, some exact; and
fountains much in request among them.
But after so much ramble into ancient times, and
remote places, to return home and consider the present
way and humour of our gardening in England ; which
seem to have grown into such vogue, and to have
been so mightily improved in three or four and twenty
years of His Majesty’s reign, that perhaps few
countries are before us, either in the elegance of our
gardens, or in the number of our plants ; and I believe
none equals us in the variety of fruits, which may be
justly called good; and from the earliest cherry and
strawberry, to the last apples and pears, may furnish
every day of the circling year. For the taste and
perfection of what we esteem the best, I may truly
say, that the French, who have eaten my peaches and
grapes at Shene, in no very ill year, have generally
concluded, that the last are as good as any they have
eaten in France, on this side Fountainbleau ; and the
first as good as any they have eat in Gascony ; I mean
those which come from the stone, and are properly
called peaches, not those which are hard, and are
termed pavies; for these cannot grow in too warm a
climate, nor ever be good in a cold ; and are better at
Madrid, than in Gascony itself: Italians have agreed,