F. EDEN.
_December, 1895._
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NOTE.--If any readers of "Mary's Meadow" have been as completely
puzzled as the writer was by the title of John Parkinson's old book,
it may interest them to know that the question has been raised and
answered in _Notes and Queries_.
I first saw the _Paradisi in sole Paradisus terrestris_ at Kew, some
years ago, and was much bewitched by its quaint charm. I grieve to say
that I do not possess it; but an old friend and florist--the Rev. H.T.
Ellacombe--was good enough to lend me his copy for reference, and to
him I wrote for the meaning of the title. But his scholarship, and
that of other learned friends, was quite at fault. My old friend's
youthful energies (he will permit me to say that he is ninety-four)
were not satisfied to rust in ignorance, and he wrote to _Notes and
Queries_ on the subject, and has been twice answered. It is an absurd
play upon words, after the fashion of John Parkinson's day. Paradise,
as _Aunt Judy's_ readers may know, is originally an Eastern word,
meaning a park, or pleasure-ground. I am ashamed to say that the
knowledge of this fact did not help me to the pun. _Paradisi in sole
Paradisus terrestris_ means Park--in--son's Earthly Paradise!
J.H.E., _February 1884._
* * * * *
How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean
Are Thy returns! ev'n as the flowers in spring;
To which, besides their own demean,
The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.
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