art)
And to a superstitious eye the haunt
Of wood gods and wood nymphs.

_Paradise Regained, Book II_

[142] The following stanzas are almost as direct translations from Tasso
as the two last stanzas in the words of Fairfax on page 111:--

The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay;--
Ah! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see,
In springing flowre the image of thy day!
Ah! see the virgin rose, how sweetly shee
Doth first peepe forth with bashful modesty;
That fairer seems the less you see her may!
Lo! see soone after how more bold and free
Her bared bosome she doth broad display;
Lo! see soone after how she fades and falls away!

So passeth, in the passing of a day,
Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flowre,
Ne more doth florish after first decay,
That erst was sought, to deck both bed and bowre
Of many a lady and many a paramoure!
Gather therefore the rose whilest yet is prime
For soone comes age that will her pride deflowre;
Gather the rose of love, whilest yet is time
Whilest loving thou mayst loved be with equal crime[144]

_Fairie Queene, Book II. Canto XII._

[143] I suppose in the remark that Kent leapt the fence, Horace Walpole
alludes to that artist's practice of throwing down walls and other
boundaries and sinking fosses called by the common people _Ha! Ha's!_
to express their astonishment when the edge of the fosse brought them to
an unexpected stop.

Horace Walpole's History of Modern Gardening is now so little read that
authors think they may steal from it with safety. In the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_ the article on Gardening is taken almost verbatim from it,
with one or two deceptive allusions such as--"_As Mr. Walpole
observes_"--"_Says Mr. Walpole_," &c. but there is nothing to mark where
Walpole's observations and sayings end, and the Encyclopaedia thus gets
the credit of many pages of his eloquence and sagacity. The whole of
Walpole's _History of Modern Gardening_ is given piece-meal as an
original contribution to _Harrrison's Floricultural Cabinet_, each
portion being signed CLERICUS.

[144] Perhaps Robert Herrick had these stanzas in his mind's ear when he
wrote his song of

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
Old time is still a flying;
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

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