To us, many of the flowers in an Elizabethan garden would look more like wild flowers than our carefully hybridised varieties, since modern varieties have been bred to maximise flower size and length of season, often at the expense of perfume. An Elizabethan gardener laid great emphasis on perfume. Arbours had fragrant climbers round them and sweet-smelling flowers and shrubs near them, such as wallflowers, pinks, rosemary and lavender.

All tourists need a phrase-book.Caxton printed Dialogues in French and English in 1483. It was still selling in 1600. The 1589 edition, giving translations from English into Flemish, German, Latin, Italian, Spanish and French, would be a great help to a tourist in an inn.   On arrival:   ‘My she [female] friend, is my bed made? Is it good?’ ‘Yes Sir, it is a good feather bed, the sheets be very clean.’ ‘Pull off my hose and warm my bed, draw the [bed] curtains, and pin them with a pin. My she friend, kiss me once and I shall sleep the better. I thank you fair maiden . . .’ And when leaving:   ‘Where is the maid? Hold, my she friend, there is [a tip] for thy pains.’

Elizabeth’s London, Liza Picard