CLASSIC PLEASURE GROUNDS 13 



tion in the " Odyssey " of the garden of Alcinous, 

 similar to that of Laertes in Ithaca, and typical of 

 the Homeric Age. 



" And without the courtyard, hard by the door, is 

 a great garden, of four ploughgates, and a hedge runs 

 round on either side. And there grow tall trees 

 blossoming, pear trees and pomegranates, and apple 

 trees with bright fruit, and sweet figs, and olives in 

 their bloom. The fruit of these trees never perisheth, 

 neither faileth, winter or summer, enduring through all 

 the year. Evermore the west wind blowing brings 

 some fruits to birth and ripens others. Pear upon The gardens 



of Alcinous. 



pear waxes old, and apple on apple, yea and cluster 

 ripens upon cluster of the grape, and fig upon fig. 

 There too hath he a fruitful vineyard planted, whereof 

 the one part is being dried by the heat, a sunny plot 

 on level ground, while other grapes men are gather- 

 ing, and yet others they are treading in the wine- 

 press. In the foremost row are unripe grapes that 

 cast the blossom, and others there be that are grow- 

 ing black to vintaging. There too, skirting the 

 furthest line, are all manner of garden beds, planted 

 trimly, that are perpetually fresh, and therein are two 

 fountains of water, whereof one scatters his stream all 

 about the garden, and the other runs over against it 

 beneath the threshold of the courtyard, and issues by 

 the lofty house, and thence did the townsfolk draw 



