CLASSIC PLEASURE GROUNDS 



In Rome, and in the smaller cities and towns, trees, prevalence 

 shrubs, and flowers were planted everywhere. " That a men tai 

 man could not heretofore come by a 

 commoner's house within the citie, but 

 he should see the windowes beautified 

 with greene quishins wrought and 

 tapissed with floures of all colours; re- 

 sembling daily to their view the gardens 

 indeed which were in out-villages, as 

 being in the very heart of the citie, 

 they might think themselves in the country." 1 There 

 were sacred groves and public parks like those at 

 Athens, hanging gardens similar to those at Babylon, 

 and garden courts with a far-away resemblance to those 

 of Egypt, and in direct imitation of the Grecian peristyle. 

 "A city garden, especially of one who has no other," 

 says Cato, "ought to be planted and ornamented with 

 all possible care." 



When there was no ground to spare in crowded Hanging 

 streets, the roofs of the houses were laid out with gar 

 pergolas, ornamental plants, and fountains, while larger 

 gardens were supported on masonry in mid-air. These 

 pensile gardens were novelties as adversely criticised as 

 the twenty-story buildings of modern American cities. 

 " Live not they against nature," asks Seneca, " that plant 

 orchards on their highest towers, that have whole forests 



1 Pliny, " Natural History." Book XIX, trans. P. Holland. 



