Lady Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford.

This portrait shows Lucy in a more thoughtful mood, akin to Donne's in writing to and of her, as in the poem abelow the previous image of her garden, for among her many other talents was a great skill in ornamental gardening as Sir William Temple has written:

"The perfectest figure of a garden I ever saw, either at home or abroad, was that of Moor Park, when I knew it about thirty years ago. It was made by the Countess of Bedford, esteemed amongst the greatest wits of her time, and celebrated by Dr. Donne, and with very great care, excellent contrivance, and much cost."

Shakespeare's interest in gardening was also considerable as reflected in the elaborate discussion of gardening practices in Richard II (III.Iv.29-71) before the Queen by her Head Gardener. But Shakespeare's most powerful passage on horticulture is Burgundy's great speech on how war has ruined the garden state which was France (Henry V, V.ii.26-67).

Engraving, by Samuel Freeman, after a portrait by Gerrit Van Honthurst, printed in Henry Tresham, British Gallery of Pictures, London: Longmans, etc., 1815-18; courtesy of the Twickenham Museum.