24 



The fashion of cuttiag trees into the figures of auimals 

 appears to have been much in favour, and the cypress and 

 the box had to undergo tortures of this kind — as we some- 

 times see in cottage and farmhouse gardens at the present 

 day ; a fashion which is happily dying out, but which was very 

 prevalent at one time. Flowers and vegetables appear to 

 have been planted side by side in Roman gardens. 

 Plutarch sj)eaks of the practice of planting roses and 

 violets side by side with leeks and onions, which seems 

 to imply, as Dr. Daubeney observes, "that in his time 

 the ornamental part of the garden was not kept distinct from 

 the useful." We still see in the farmhouse gardens of this 

 county the same tendency to mingle flowers with pot-herbs 

 and kitchen plants. The pot-herbs which Columella directed 

 to be cultivated in his garden comprehended the greater part 

 of those in use at present, except the potatoe, and a few 

 others, which we owe to the discovery of America. It is 

 rather remarkable that the exploration of a new conti- 

 nent, and the continued demand for fresh luxuries and 

 conveniences, should have added so little to the articles 

 of human sustenance obtained from the vegetable king- 

 dom; so that while the Eastern world has furnished us 

 chiefly with tea and coffee, to the Western Hemisphere we 

 should be indebted for little more than the potatoe and 

 tobacco." ("Lectures on Roman Husbandry," p. 256). (See 

 Columella, Book 10; Virgil " Geor.," iv., 116.) Having now 

 briefly touched upon what may have been the accompaniments 

 of this Villa, we may draw our observations to a close by 

 expressing a hope that the labours of this Club in disintening 

 these ancient remains, may not have been altogether without 

 profit, and that some knowledge has been derived of the 

 nature and extent of Roman industry, and interest imparted 

 to a subject, which, if followed out, might also lead to not 

 unimportant results. 



