10 



which admit the passage of light nearly as well as Glass, and 

 were transported at night to the shelter of some house.* 

 Whether they ever employed the more transparent medium of 

 Glass as a shelter, we are unable to determine. It is cer- 

 tain that in the reign of Aurelian, A. D. 273. the luxury of 

 Glass windows was enjoyed. 



It is pretty certain that in the earlier ages of the City, the 

 Kitchen and Fruit Gardens were in one common enclosure, nor 

 have we any direct testimony that they were divided into se- 

 parate departments, until the time of the younger Pliny, who 

 mentions in a letter to his friend Gallus, the Kitchen Gardea 

 as being separate from the Orchard and Pleasure grounds. 



In those early days when'the departments were amalgamated, 

 and when from the pot-herbs and fruits produced by their 

 joint growth, the poorer Romans and the slaves of proprie- 

 tors derived their chief sustenanee, it was usually under the 

 care of the housekeeper or Steward's wife, who was lightly 

 estimated, if it was not productive and capable of sustaining 

 the household. f The husbandman used to deride its culture, 

 and designate it " a second dessert " and '* a Jiltch of bacons" 

 always ready for. cutting. :J: 



Of the Fruit Gardens of the Romans, 



In accordance with the observation which we made at the 

 commencement of this Chapter, that the cultivation of Fruit 

 appears always to engage, the first Horticultural notice of 

 every nation, we find that the Romans were much more atten- 

 tive to their Orchards than their Kitchen Gardens, as is ma- 

 nifested by the greater number of species and varieties of their 

 inhabitants. Cato, our earliest informant, mentions scvea 

 varieties of the Olive ; six good ones of the Vine, more than 



* Columella b. xi. c 3. Pliny b. xix. c. 23. f Pliny xix. -t. s. 19. 

 X Cicero de Sou. 16. 



