SHAKESPEARE GARDEN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13674, 17 August 1908, Page 3

SHAKESPEARE GARDEN.

FLORAL MEMORIAL., A modest green board' with the legend in white'lettering—"This garden contains all the plants mentioned in tile worus 01 Shakespeare"—is the only indication of the public that a ceitan iragrant corner, half • hidden. amidst copper ' beeches and heavily bearing fruit uees in a, North London park, is dedicated to the memory of the great poet-dianiatist. Yet this little old-world, cist while kitchen garden, (Something under two acres in extent, is in tktee sunny June days the prettiest and sweetest reminder Londoners could well have of a memory already immortalised. " To. Make sfou Uai-iands Of." The Shakespeare garden in Waterlow Park,, Highgate, has solved satisfactorily, at least for the many North London rt&identa. who haunt it on Sunday mornings and week-day evenings, the problem of a Shakespeare menioa-ial. The "t\v;entynine beautiful acres of Waterlow Park arc rich-.' enough with historical associations tomake them a fitting neighbourhood for such a ' garden. By the time you have seen Nell Crwynn's House, the site of Andrew Marvell's cottage, and tried to imagine the gravel paths and velvet turf of Waterlow as th«y were in ■• 1546, a hunting and a hawking ground for Henry VIII, and his gallants, you are in fine tune to appreciate the lovely tangle of blossoming herbs and.plants redolent of the spirit of Shakespeare. Those who' had ■ the planning .of this pretty corner might have read firet in dedication :

Here's flowers for you; Hot lavender,' mints/ savory, marjoram; The marigold* that goes to bed with the sun "•' .■■•■•"'■ . . . - . ; bold' oxlips and '■ The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds, The flower-de-luce being one! To make;you garlands of, and then fallen straightway to work with loving faithfulness and made their Shakespeare garden —so well is it done! . A screen of gnarled old pear and fine standard'apple trees—now'full of promise for harvest—walls in the quaint box;borders crammed' full:.'of, the old-fashioned ■flowers and herbs, and 'there ' is not & trace of artificial culture or planning to

spoil the whdle.. You can tat- on the- low : red brick wall moss-grown and browned with age, land count the flowers that Shakespeare loved, without noticing. tb*. numerous wooden Shakespeare-" Rue - nitia graveolens . Shakespeare—they are only,:there for the instruction of the ignorant and the guiifance of the j: gardener—and not in undue prominence. - ' , . A Glorious Confusion., Soft greeii ciunips of hyssop; alternate with groups of balm and herb wormwood, the flower de luce, which is the purple ins nods its stately: head beside the aehcate flower of the summer,; aconite ;., peare's honeysuckle (woodbine) is thiovying out soft green tendrils to catch the thorny 'bid English sweet brier (Eglantine) that grows near by, aud : is brighuy: starred with fragile pink petals. The Madonna lily is shooting up ta4 slenuer,_budded stalks beWle a nuinbie ciuiup ul sweet-scented wild thyme. Fennel and' gilly flowers or carnations, just abud, pink-eyed daisies, saxifage and rosemary, pansy and peonies,/rosts of the swdei. old kind, in masses, are all in the Shakespeare garden in a curious confusion that went out of fashion for gardens, with sundials and box walks, in tlie days of our great greut grandfathers, and can scarcely oe truly imitated in the twentieth century. A oerain portion of lhe : quaint old garden plot is reserved. for propagating, and under glats have been i\.areu; new plains —amongst them the. pa.e": green, white splasheu, " hoiythistic,.'" planed for lue hist lime this year, and a perl'umed little heib kriown as "summer savouiyj" All Old English Flowers. - .' The greatest care is taken in the- seleor tion of Shakespearean plants,'to Iwd tub genuine thing—and many of. theni have Seen procured from remote country : districts, where they, grow wild, or in cultivation.- bhaketpear's " honeystalks'—our e j o ver-—is not yet lull in Uiooui in tuebeds, but is promising well, anil a stunted queer old •■crab'' apple is.- : quite a, cheriohed treasure. The Oat, of . oiiuktspearean plants! a. formidable one, was carefully prepared by an authority and submitted to. tlit> Council, after tue suggestion two yearS ago that the' Did English garden should b« made into a Shakespearean garden. The fine old house of Waterlow Park, restored at great cost in 1899, is a relic of beautiful Nell Gynn, for it was bought lor her by Charles'll from the Duke Lauderdale, and under its veraudan modern liondoheis now revel in tea garden joys. Nell's marble bath is still it> >a. corner ol the oak pillared hall.- This' is. where Pepys used to visit "my Lord Lauderuale unu liady." " Only a sinall brass tablet now maiKs 'one', of tlie little wood and plaster cottage occupied- by Andrew Marvel iti 1657,: when ;iie'Svas "a colleague with John Milton in "the Foreign fcjecietaiysliip, and where such visitor as Colerrdge, General Ireton, and Cromwell himself wt re known. Th'e Highgate Shakespeare garden is in such a rich setting of. historical anil litieraiy value, and atsei-vcs more notice and admiration than it has. yet i attracted. . -■■.",•'•'■' "■'■>■..■ (L.V.M. in '"Daily~Clrrbnicle.)