308 Dr. Falconer on the Style and Tdfte 
I fee but little mention made of a garden* 
otherwife than as a matter of utility, to produce 
articles of food, for many years after ; though I 
think it probable, they might be as matters of 
pleafure alfo. The writers, however, on huf- 
bandry, Cato, Varro, Columella, and Palladius, 
make not the lead mention of a garden, as an 
object of pleafure, but folely, with refpect to its 
productions of herbs and fruits; and I do not 
imagine it was among the earlieft articles of 
Roman luxury. The Lucullan gardens feem to 
be the firtl I can find mentioned, of remarkable 
magnificence ; though, probably, from the height 
of extravagance to which thefe were arrived, - 
they were not the firfb. Plutarch fpeaks of them, 
as incredibly expenfive, and equal to the mag¬ 
nificence of kings.* They contained artificial 
elevations, of ground to a furprizing height, of 
buildings projected into the fea, and vaft pieces 
of water made upon land. In fhort, his extra¬ 
vagance and expence was fo great, that he ac¬ 
quired from thence the appellation of, the Roman 
Xerxes. 
• 
* Plutarch. Life of Lucullus. 
Salluftis thought to have alluded to the Villa of Lucullus 
when, in deferibing the Roman luxury, he fays, “ Nam 
quid ea memorem, qua;, nifi his qui videre, nemini credi- 
bilia funt; a privatis compluribus fubverfos montes, marra 
conftrata die.” Bell. Catilin. 
It 
