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near them, which lurcheth' all provisions, and maketh everything dear; where a man hath a great living laid together, and where he is scanted; all which, as it is impossible perhaps to find together, so it is good to know them, and think of them, that a man may take as many as he can; and, if he have several dwellings, that he sort them so, that what he wanteth in the one he may find in the other. Lucullus answered Pompey well, who, when he saw his stately galleries and rooms so large and lightsome, in one of his houses, said, 'Surely, an excellent place for summer, but how do you in winter?' Lucullus answered, 'Why do you not think me as wise as some fowls are, that ever change their abode towards the winter?'

To pass from the seat to the house itself, we will do as Cicero doth in the orator's art, who writes books De Oratore, and a book he entitles Orator; whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the latter the perfection. We will therefore describe a princely palace, making a brief model thereof; for it is strange to see, now in Europe, such huge buildings as the Vatican and Escurial, and some others be, and yet scarce a very fair room in them.

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First, therefore, I say, you cannot have a perfect palace, except you have two several sides; a side for the banquet, as is spoken of in the book of Esther, and a side for the household; the one for feasts and triumphs, and the other for dwelling. I understand both these sides to be not only returns, but parts of the front; and to be uniform without, though severally partitioned within; and to be on both sides of a great and stately tower in the midst of the front, that, as it were, joineth them together on either hand. I would have, on the

Lurch. To absorb. (From l'ourche-a game in which the stakes are put into a box, where the loser is obliged to leave them. Hence perhaps the expression to be left in the lurch.')

2 Scanted. Limited; restricted. I am scanted in the pleasure of dwelling on your actions.-Dryden.

3 Sort. To choose.

Plut.

5 Fair.

To sort some gentlemen well skilled in music.'-Shakespere.
Vit. Lucull. 30.

Handsome.

'Carry him to my fairest chamber.'-Shakespere.

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Several. Separate. He dwelt in a several house.'-2 Kings XV. 5.

7 Triumphs. Shows on festive occasions. See page 414.

side of the banquet in front, one only goodly room above stairs, of some forty feet high; and under it a room for a dressing, or preparing place, at times of triumphs. On the other side, which is the household side, I wish it divided at the first into a hall and a chapel, with a partition between, both of good state and bigness,' and those not to go all the length, but to have at the farther end a winter and a summer parlour, both fair; and under these rooms a fair and large cellar sunk under ground; and likewise some privy kitchens, with butteries and pantries, and the like. As for the tower, I would have it two storeys, of eighteen feet high a-piece above the two wings; and goodly leads upon the top, railed with statues interposed; and the same tower to be divided into rooms, as shall be thought fit. The stairs likewise to the upper rooms, let them be upon a fair and open newel, and finely railed in with images of wood cast into a brass colour, and a very fair landing place at the top. But this to be, if you do not point any of the lower rooms for a dining place of servants; for otherwise you shall have the servants' dinner after your own, for the steam of it will come up as in a tunnel. And so much for the front, only I understand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen feet, which is the height of the lower room.

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Beyond this front is there to be a fair court, but three sides of it of a far lower building than the front; and in all the four corners of that court fair staircases, cast into turrets on the outside, and not within the rows of buildings themselves; but those towers are not to be of the height of the front, but rather proportionable to the lower building. Let the court not be paved, for that striketh up a great heat in summer, and much cold in winter, but only some side alleys with a cross, and the quarters to graze, being kept shorn, but not too near shorn. The row of return on the banquet side, let it be all stately galleries; in which galleries let there be three or five fine cupolas in the length of it, placed at equal distance, and fine coloured windows of several works; on the household side,

1 Bigness. Size, whether great or small. Several sorts of rays make vibrations of several bignesses.'-Sir Isaac Newton.

2 Point. To appoint.

To celebrate the solemn bridall cheere

"Twixt Peleus and dame Thetis pointed there.'-Spenser.

chambers of presence and ordinary entertainments with some bed-chambers; and let all three sides be a double house, without thorough lights on the sides, that you may have rooms from the sun, both for forenoon and afternoon. Cast it also that you may have rooms both for summer and winter, shady for summer and warm for winter. You shall have sometimes fair houses so full of glass, that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold. For embowed 3 windows, I hold them of good use; in cities, indeed, upright do better, in respect of the uniformity towards the street; for they be pretty retiring places for conference, and, besides, they keep both the wind and sun offfor that which would strike almost through the room, doth scarce pass the window; but let them be but few, four in the court, on the sides only.

Beyond this court let there be an inward court, of the same square and height, which is to be environed with the garden on all sides; and in the inside, cloistered on all sides upon decent and beautiful arches, as high as the first storey; on the under storey, towards the garden, let it be turned to a grotto, or place of shade, or estivation; and only have opening and windows towards the garden, and be level upon the floor, no whit sunk under ground, to avoid all dampishness; and let there be a fountain, or some fair work of statues in the midst of the court, and to be paved as the other court was. These buildings to be for privy lodgings on both sides, and the end for privy galleries; whereof you must foresee that one of them be for an infirmary, if the prince or any special person should be sick, with chambers, bed-chamber, antecamera' ['anti-chamber']

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I saw a bull as white as driven snow,

With gilden horns, embowed like the moon.'-Spenser.

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4 Inward. Inner. Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.'-2 Cor. iv.

5 Whit. The least degree. See page 445.

and recamera,' ['retiring-chamber,' or 'back-chamber'] joining to it; this upon the second storey. Upon the ground storey, a fair gallery, open, upon pillars; and upon the third storey likewise, an open gallery upon pillars, to take the prospect and freshness of the garden. At both corners of the farther side, by way of return, let there be two delicate or rich cabinets, daintily1 paved, richly hanged,' glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich cupola in the midst, and all other elegancy that may be thought upon. In the upper gallery, too, I wish that there may be, if the place will yield it, some fountains running in divers places from the wall, with some fine avoidances. And thus much for the model of the palace; save that you must have, before you come to the front, three courts—a green court, plain, with a wall about it; a second court of the same, but more garnished with little turrets, or rather embellishments, upon the wall; and a third court, to make a square wtih the front, but not to be built, nor yet enclosed with a naked wall, but enclosed with terraces leaded aloft, and fairly garnished on the three sides, and cloistered on the inside with pillars, and not with arches below. As for offices, let them stand at distance, with some low galleries to pass from them to the palace itself.

1 Daintily. Elegantly. See page 1.

2 Hanged. Hung (with draperies). Music is better in rooms wainscotted than hanged.'-Bacon.

* Divers. Many. See page 226.

• Avoidances. Water-courses. 'The two avoidances or passages of water.'Statute 8th year of King Henry VII.

Go

ESSAY XLVI. OF GARDENS.

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OD ALMIGHTY first planted a garden, and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, without which building and palaces are but gross handyworks: 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, pines, fir-trees, rosemary, lavender; periwinkle, the white, the purple, and the blue; germander, flag, 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 tulip, hyacinthus orientalis, chamaïris, fritellaria. For March, there come violets, especially the single blue, which are the earliest; the early daffodil, the daisy, the almond-tree in blossom, the peach-tree in blossom, the corneliantree in blossom, sweetbriar. In April, follow the double white violet, the wall-flower, the stock-gilliflower, the cowslip, flowerde-luces," and lilies of all natures; rosemary-flowers, the tulip, the double peony, the pale daffodil, the French honeysuckle, the cherry-tree in blossom, the damascene and plum-trees in blossom,

1 Civility. Civilization.

'Wheresoe'er her conquering eagles fled,

Arts, learning, and civility were spread.'-Denham.

2 Elegancy. See page 414.

3 Things of beauty. Beautiful things.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever!"

As for the cherry-laurel, the rhododendron, and even the laurustinus and the ilex, though natives of Portugal, Bacon seems not to have known them. But it is strange he does not mention the box, which is indigenous. Evelyn notices it; but with a caution against placing it too near the house, on account of its odour; which, to him, it seems was offensive, though, to others, a most delicious fragrance.

Flower-de-luces. The iris.

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