"Cœpisti melius quam desinis: ultima primis
Cedunt: dissimiles hic vir et ille puer."
Essay XLIII. Of Beauty.—See Antith., No. 2. vol. viii. p. 354.
"A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert Durer were the more trifler; whereof the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions, the other by taking the best parts out of divers faces to make one excellent.">[ With regard to Apelles, Lord Bacon probably alludes to the story of Zeuxis in Cic. De Inv. ii. 1.
"Pulcrorum autumnus pulcher.">[ Query, What is the source of this quotation?
Essay XLVI. Of Gardens.—
Many of the names of plants in this Essay require illustration. Gennitings appear to be broom, from genista; quodlins are codlings, a species of apple; wardens are a species of pear, concerning which see Hudson's Domestic Architecture of the Thirteenth Century, p. 137. Bullaces are explained by Halliwell to be a small black and tartish plum, growing wild in some parts of the country.
"My meaning is perceived, that you may have ver perpetuum, as the place affords.">[ The allusion, probably, is to Virgil, Georg. ii. 149.:
"Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus æstas."
"Little low hedges, round, like welts, with some pretty pyramids, I like well.">[ A welt was the turned-over edge of a garment.