VIRGIL WOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20668, 13 September 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

VIRGIL WOOD.

A POET'S MEMORIAL.

In many parts of England are to be found " Shakespeare Gardens" plante'd only with flowers mentioned in Shakespeare's plays. A similar idea is now to be carried out near Mantua, tho birthplace of tho poet, Virgil (more correctly, but less commonly spelled with an " o"), whose bi-millenary is to bo celebratod in the spring of this year. Fifteen acres are to be planted with examples of nearly 200 treos mentioned in tho Latin poet's " Georgics," that charming blend of sound agricultural advico and superstitious fancy. Beyond the planted area, according to the London Sunday Times, is a largo territory of marsh, woodland, and field, and it is planned to leave this section in its virgin state. An open space at the end of tho poplar-flanked way will serve for meetings, festivals and pageants. Tho planted area is being made to appear as much as possible like a Roman garden of tho first century before Christ. Tho idea is not now. During tho Napoleonic Wars, and the French occupation of Italy, an Italian architect obtained oflicial approval of plans for a Virgilian wood on a grand scale, but lack of funds and the coming of tho Austrians put an end to tho project. Tho idea was again mooted in tho first fifteen years of the present century, but again war interfered and there was no time to sing paeans to a long-dead Roman poet, even one who was, in Tennyson's phrase, " wielder of tho lordliest nioasuro over moulded by the lips of man."