Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/303

 and Sejiti?nents, 283 CHAPTER XIII. OCCUPATIONS OUT OF DOORS. THE PLEASURE-GARDEN. THE LOVE OF FLOWERS, AND THE FASHION OF MAKING GARLANDS. FOR- MALITIES OF THE PROMENADE. GARDENING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. HUMBOLDT, in his " Cofmos," has dwelt on the tafte for the beauties of nature which has prevailed among various peoples, and at different periods of the world's hitlory, but he appears to me to have by no means appreciated or done juftice to the force of this fentiment among our forefathers in the middle ages, and, perhaps I may fay, efpecially in England. In our ancient popular poetry, the mention of the fealon of the year at which an event happens generally draws from the poet fome allulion to the charms of nature peculiar to it, to the fweetnefs of the flowers, the richnefs of the fruit, or the harmony of the fong of birds. In fome of the early romances, each new divifion of the poem is introduced by an allufion of this kind. Thus, at the opening of what the editor calls the firlT: chapter of the fecond part of the romance of " Richard Coeur de Lion," the poet tells us how it — ■ Merye is in the tyme of May ^ Whenne fouVn Jynge in her lay Flour es on appyl-trees and per ye (pear-tree) ; Smale foules Jynge merye. Ladyes ftroive here boures (chambers) JVith rede rofes and lylye Jloivres ; Gret joye is in frith (grove) ai^d lake. — Weber, ii. 149. Such interruptions of the narrative are frequent in the long romance of "Alexander" (Alexander the Great), and are always expreflive. Thus, on one occalion the poet tells us, abruptly enough, how — Whan corn ripeth in e-very Jleode (place), Mury (pleasant) it is infeld and hyde (meadow). — Ibid., i. 21. And