rtial and Juvenal ridicule the clipped box trees, cut dragons, and
similar grotesque fancies, at some of their villas, both admiring the
nobler grace with which nature adorned each spot.[25]

The Romans were perhaps the first who introduced that art into Britain,
meagerly as they did introduce it. The earliest account I can find of an
English writer on Gardening, is,

Alfred, an _Englishman_, surnamed the Philosopher, much respected at
Rome. He died 1270, and left four books on the Meteors of Aristotle;
also one on _Vegetables_, and five on the Consolations of Boethius. We
are not _very_ likely to discover _his_ portrait. Nor that of the
following:--

HENRY DANIEL, a Dominican friar, said to be well skilled in the natural
philosophy and physic of his time, left a manuscript inscribed _Aaron
Danielis_. He therein treats De re Herbaria, de Arboribus, _Fructibus_,
&c. He flourished about the year 1379.--N. B. I have copied this article
from Dr. Pulteney's Sketches, vol. 1, page 23.[26]

I believe there are no Portraits engraved, nor perhaps yet discovered,
of the following sixty-nine persons; at least I know of none:--

RICHARD ARNOLDE, who in his Chronicle, printed in 1502, has a chapter on
"The crafte of graffynge, and plantyne, and alterynge of fruyts, as well
in colours, as in taste." The celebrated poem of the Nut-brown Maid
first appeared in this Chronicle. Sir E. Brydges, in vol. 6 of his
Censura Literaria, has transcribed the whole poem as it appears in
Arnolde.

THOMAS TUSSER, whose memory has had the felicity to merit the notice of
Mr. Warton, in his History of English Poetry, from his having published
his poem of "A Hundreth good Pointes of Husbandrie, imprinted at London,
in Flete strete, within Temple barre, at the syne of the Hand and
Starre, by Richard Totell, An. 1577." A copy of this first edition
(probably unique) is preserved in the British Museum. A re-print of this
singular literary rarity is given in Mr. Hazlewood's British
Bibliographer. The subsequent editions of this curious book are
interestingly enumerated by Mr. Mavor, in his edition of Tusser. No
portrait I believe has been discovered of this benevolent man, whose
good sense, impressive maxims, enlightened and philosophic turn of mind
and feeling for the poor, shine through most pages of his poem:--

What better bed than conscience good, to pass the night with sleep,
What better work, than daily care, from sin thyself to keep?