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.

* * * * *

    Then be not coy, but use your time;
    And while ye may, so marry: 
    For having lost but once your prime
    You may for ever tarry.