io ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



gardens at a very early period, and passed on a share 

 of their knowledge to the Greeks and Romans. Pliny 

 says in his " Natural History " as it was translated 

 by P. Holland at the time of the Renaissance, " The 

 Syrians are great Gardiners, they take exceeding 

 pains and bee most anxious in gardening; whereupon 

 arose the proverb in Greek to this effect, ' Many 

 Woorts and Pot-herbs in Syria.'" 



These Eastern pleasure grounds were known to 

 the Greeks as paradeisoi (TrapaSeio-ot). Sir William 



The oriental Temple in the " Garden of Epicurus " writes : 



" A Paradise seems to have been a large Space 

 of Ground adorned and beautified with all Sorts of 

 Trees both of Fruits and of Forest, either found there 

 before it was enclosed or planted after; either culti- 

 vated like gardens for Shade and for walks with 

 Fountains or Streams and all sorts of Plants usual in 

 the Climate and pleasant to the Eye, the Smell or the 

 Taste ; or else employed like our Parks for Inclosure 

 and Harbour of all sorts of Wild Beasts, as well as 

 for the Pleasure of Riding and Walking : And so 

 they were of more or less extent and of differing 

 Entertainment according to the several Humours of 

 the Princes that ordered and inclosed them." 



There are several representations of such paradeisoi 

 incised on marble slabs brought from Kouyunjik to 

 the British Museum. The most interesting of these is 



