ABSTRACT
Beauty and Garden Design: Marie de Brimeu ‘I remember seeing a parrot at the late Marie de Brimeu’s house before she le Holland which was unequalled in the colours, variety and elegance of its feathers’, Clusius wrote. Almost all of the feathers covering its body were reddish, including its tail, which was partly red and partly blue. e feathers on the back and the wings were yellow, red and green, intermingled with blue. It had a white ring around the eyes marked out by wavy black lines. Clusius could not recall ever having seen a description of such a species. is bird was so fond of Anna de Hyllen, a noblewoman and relative of Marie de Brimeu, ‘that it followed her wherever she went through her room and could not see her touching any piece of clothing without giving it a nip, so jealous was it’.1
