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When mankind began to domicile, and left the Caves and 

 Bowers which Nature unassisted afforded, for dwellings con- 

 structed with Art, and of materials too ponderous for transporta- 

 tion. Gardening must have attended this commencement of 

 property. The value of various herbs being known, each family 

 thus settled, must soon have learned the convenience of having 

 them vegetating ncai' their dwelling rather than to have to seek 

 them, chance directed, as necessity rendered them requisite. 

 Herbs and Fruits would thus be gradually collected round each 

 dwelling and fix its inhabitants more firmly to the spot as 

 abounding more with such necessaries than any other they could 

 hope to discover. To mark individual property, and to exclude 

 Cattle, a fence would naturally be constructed. As the family 

 of the Tenant, and as the number of naturalized plants increased, 

 so in proportion would the inclosure extend. As wealth accu- 

 mulated, as the Hut rose into the Palace, as comforts were re- 

 quired as well as necessaries, and luxuries were not denied where 

 there was power to acquire thorn. Walls supplied the place of 

 hedges, and mai'ked the superiority of that Land-owner, whose 

 dwelling was of Stone and not of Mud-plastered wicker-work. 

 Within such enclosure, pomp and the desire of pleasui-e com- 

 bined to require something that might enliven its insipidity. 

 Earths of various colours were arranged in beds of mathemati- 

 cal forms, thrown into Terraces, divided by Balustrades, and 

 mounted by flights of stone steps. Water was collected in 

 marble Basins, confined h\ parallel sided straight Canals, poured 

 over stone steps, or tossed into the air. Plants were ar- 

 ranged in geometrical order; and their foliage dipt into 

 shapes equally regular, or formed into figures monstrous and 

 grotesque. Such novelties where pleasing, and man could 

 do no more in this style, when he increased the size of his 

 Gardens, than vary the arrangement of the repetition; he might 

 turn the kaleidescopeat will ; but the same materials, the same 

 ideas appeared only in a different succession. Invention was 

 at a stand still, confined to a square plot of wall-girted ground 



