20 



ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



Location 

 of the 

 viridarium. 



The peri- 

 style. 



shaking upon the tops and turrets of their houses, spread- 

 ing their roots in such places where it would suffice them 

 that the tops of their branches should touch ? " l 



If the dwelling was built purely after the Roman 

 fashion, vegetation was cultivated in a court behind 

 the house ; but if the Grecian peristyle had replaced the 

 ancient atrium, it contained the viridarium, or herbage. 

 Sometimes ornamental plants were grown in both the 

 inner and outer enclosures, which, opening into each 

 other, were similar in arrangement. Smaller courtyards, 

 particularly one reserved for the women, contained 

 flowers especially intended to be picked. Often when 

 the space was too limited to contain a real garden, the 

 illusion of seeing one was contrived by painting the 

 enclosing walls with flowers and shrubs in perspective. 

 The Grecian peristyle differed from the Roman 

 atrium as an elegant drawing-room differs from a homely 



living-room in a modern 

 house. Most of the larger 

 dwellings at the time of the 

 Empire contained one and 

 sometimes two peristyles. 

 These courtyards were un- 

 roofed quadrangles enclosed 

 by a portico adjoining the 

 principal apartments occupied by the family, and in 



1 Seneca, Epist. 122. 



