THE HISTORY OF GARDENING. 37 



into the bason, bay trees, alternately planted with planes, and a 

 straight walk, from whence issued others parted off by hedges of box, 

 and apple trees, with obelisks placed between every two. There 

 wants nothing but the embroidery of a parterre, to make a garden in 

 the reign of Trajan serve for a description of one in that of King 

 William.* In one passage above, Pliny seems to have conceived that 

 natural irregularity might be a beauty ; in opere urbanissimo, says 

 he, subita velut illati ruris imitatio. Something like a rural view 

 was contrived amidst so much polished composition. But the idea 

 soon vanished, lineal walks immediately enveloped the slight scene, 

 and names and inscriptions in box again succeeded to compensate for 

 the daring introduction of nature. 



In the paintings found at Herculaneum are a few traces of gardens, 

 as may be seen in the second volume of the prints. They are small 

 square inclosures, formed by trellis-work, and espaliers,*f- and regu- 

 larly ornamented with vases, fountains, and caryatides, elegantly sym- 

 metrical, and proper for the narrow spaces allotted to the garden of a 

 house in a capital city. From such I would not banish those playful 

 waters that refresh a sultry mansion in town, nor the neat trellis 

 which preserves its wooden verdure better than natural greens exposed 

 to dust. Those treillages, in the gardens at Paris, particularly on 

 the Boulevard, have a gay and delightful effect. They form light 

 corridores, and transpicuous arbours, through which the sun-beams 

 play and chequer the shade, set off the statues, vases, and flowers, 

 that correspond with their gaudy hotels, and suit the gallant and idle 



Lord Burleigh's, at Theobalds : were obelisks, pyramids, and circular porticos, 

 with cisterns of lead for bathing. At Hampton Court the garden walls were 

 covered with rosemary, a custom, he says, very common in England. At 

 Theobalds was a labyrinth also, an ingenuity I shall mention presently to have 

 been frequent in that age. 



* Dr. Plot, in his Natural History of Oxfordshire, p. 380, seems to have been 

 a great admirer of trees carved into the most heterogeneous forms, which he 

 calls topiary works, and quotes one Laurembergius for saying that the English 

 are as expert as most nations in that kind of sculpture, for which Hampton 

 Court was particularly remarkable. The doctor then names other gardens that 

 nourished with animals and castles, formed arte topiaria, and above all a wren's 

 nest, that was capacious enough to receive a man to sit on a seat made within it 

 for that purpose. 



t At Warwick Castle is an ancient suit of arras, in which there is a garden 

 exactly resembling these pictures of Herculaneum. 



