38 THE HISTORY OK GARDENING. 



society who paint the walks between their parterres, and realize the 

 fantastic scenes of Watteau and Durse. 



From what I have said, it appears how naturally and insensibly the 

 idea of a kitchen garden slid into that which has for so many ages 

 been peculiarly termed a Garden, and by our ancestors in this country, 

 distinguished by the name of a Pleasure Garden. A square piece of 

 ground was originally parted off in early ages for the use of the 

 family : — to exclude cattle, &c, it was separated from the fields by a 

 hedge. As pride and a desire of privacy increased, the inclosurewas 

 dignified by walls ; and, in climes where fruits were not lavished by 

 the ripening glow of nature and soil, fruit-trees were assisted and 

 sheltered from surrounding winds by the like expedient ; for the 

 inundation of luxuries which have swelled into general necessities, 

 have almost all taken their source from the simple fountain of reason. 



When the custom of making square gardens inclosed with walls 

 was thus established, to the exclusion of nature and prospect,* pomp 

 and solitude combined to call for something that might enrich and 

 enliven the insipid and unanimated partition. Fountains, first in- 

 vented for use, which grandeur loves to disguise and throw out of the 

 question, received embellishments from costly marbles, and at last, to 

 contradict utility, tossed their waste of waters into air in spouting 

 columns. Art, in the hands of rude man, had at first been made a 

 succedaneum to nature ; in the hands of ostentatious wealth, it 

 became the means of opposing nature ; and the more it traversed the 

 march of the latter, the more nobility thought its power was demon- 

 strated. Canals measured by the line were introduced in lieu of 

 meandering streams, and terraces were hoisted aloft in opposition to 

 the facile slopes that imperceptibly unite the valley to the hill. 

 Balustrades defended these precipitate and dangerous elevations, and 

 nights of steps rejoined them to the subjacent flat from which the 

 terrace had been dug. Vases and sculpture were added to these 

 unnecessary balconies, and statues furnished the lifeless spot with 

 mimic representations of the excluded sons of men. Thus difficulty 

 and expense were the constituent parts of those sumptuous and selfish 



* It was not uncommon, after the circumjacent country had been shut out, to 

 endeavour to recover it by raising large mounds of earth to peep over the walls 

 of the garden. 



