spring gardenn.

1603 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. ii. xxxvi. 431 All..have made vse of..his Bookes, as of a Seminarie, a Spring-garden or Store-house [Fr. comme d'vne pepiniere] of all kinds of sufficiency and learning.

1609 T. Dekker Worke for Armorours sig. E2 They spread all their stalles with greene cotten, and so adorned their shoppes, that they looked like a spring garden, in which grew flowers of gold.

1646 J. Shirley Poems 1 Into Loves Spring-garden walk.

1799 J. Fuller Hist. Berwick upon Tweed i. 51 The luxuriant verdure.., together with Spring Gardens, enrich and embellish this interesting piece of scenery.

1860 M. S. Cummins El Fureidis xix. 205 Each terrace was a spring garden of vegetation.

1883 W. Robinson Eng. Flower Garden i. p. l/1 What we should counsel those who care for their spring gardens is this: To begin and always to work with a series of nursery beds.

1914 E. A. Bowles My Garden in Spring xvii. 295 If you have enjoyed strolling round the spring garden with me..I hope later on you will accompany me on a second journey to review the summer aspect of the place and plants.

1947 H. Nicolson Diary May (1968) 97 The spring-garden has lost its early bloom.

2004 National Post (Canada) 25 Sept. (Post Homes section) 7 The spring garden would not be complete, of course, without the golden sunshine of the king of all spring bulbs, the daffodil.

1612 J. Maxwell Life & Death Prince Henry sig. B^v Vpon S. Leonards day, In the Spring garden at Saint Iames alight.

1664 K. Philips Poems 180 To Hide-Parke let them go, And hasting thence be full of fears, To lose Spring-Garden shew.

a1741 C. Fiennes Through Eng. on Side Saddle (1888) 181 Its a place that is used Like our Spring Gardens, for the Company of the town to walk in the Evening.

1794 Guardian 7 Sept. 272 A presbyterian parson..told me in a very soft tone, that he believed I was a pretty fellow, and that he would meet me in Spring-Garden to-morrow night.

1862 W. H. Marshall Old Vauxhall I. vii. 183 Mr. Mardingly had gone ashore for the purpose of taking a lady to the Vauxhall Spring Gardens.

1896 W. Wroth London Pleasure Gardens 18th Cent. vi. 288 The Spring Garden..was not a little notorious as a rendezvous for fashionable gallantry and intrigue.

1952 J. H. Wilson Nell Gwyn ii. 22 There was music in the Spring Garden in St. James's Park and dancing in the streets to tunes scraped out by vagrant fiddlers.

2007 M. Hammond Belles Dames Club xiii. 58 The ladies of the Belles Dames Club descended upon the Spring Gardens in Vauxhall like a flock of gaily coloured birds.

a1625 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Four Plays in One in Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Dddddddd^v/2 Sophocles would..like a spring garden shoote his scornfull blood into their eyes durst come to tread on him.

1798 J. M. Mason Comments Plays Beaumont & Fletcher x. 398 The water played upon you, and wet you severely: these were called spring-gardens.

1849 P. Cunningham Handbk. London II. 767 Spring Gardens,..so called from a jet or spring of water, which sprung with the pressure of the foot, and wetted whoever was foolish or ignorant enough to tread upon it.

1981 G. C. Boon Cardiganshire Silver i. 20 The Spring Garden at Whitehall had fountains to be-sprinkle visitors.