Gardens still held spiritual significance. In his essay 'Of Gardens', written in 1625, Francis Bacon declares: "God Almighty first planted a Garden; and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man; without which buildings and palaces are but gross handy-works".
This drawing from a "discourse on gardeninge applied to a spirtuall understanding" comes from a late-16th-century manuscript by Hugh Halles. It uses everyday gardening tools to illustrate the spiritual needs of the Christian soul.
Good husbandry, like good governance of the kingdom, was seen to be a duty handed down from God who had given humankind dominion over all living things.
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