36 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



into a variety of others divided by box hedges. In 

 one place you have a little meadow, in another the 

 box is cut into a thousand different forms ; some- 

 times into letters expressing the name of the master; 

 sometimes that of the artificer, whilst here and there 

 little obelisks rise, intermixed alternately with fruit 

 trees ; when on a sudden, in the midst of this elegant 

 regularity, you are surprised with an imitation of the 

 negligent beauties of rural nature, in the centre of 

 which lies a spot surrounded with a knot of dwarf 

 plane trees. . . . Throughout the whole hippodrome 

 several small rills run murmuring along, wheresoever 

 the hand of art thought proper to conduct them; 

 watering here and there different spots of verdure, 

 and in their progress refreshing the whole." 



Broad paths wide enough for a sedan-chair or a litter 

 to be carried along them were called gestationes. Some- 

 times they surrounded the parterre or hippodrome, and 

 sometimes they were placed on a terrace. Often they 

 were planted with soft moss or with sweet-smelling 

 herbs, which sent forth their fragrance when crushed 

 under foot. 



Narrow paths, called ambulationes, separated the beds 

 in the parterre. These were not wide enough for more 

 than one or two people to walk abreast. 



Other kinds of esplanades, open, or covered by a por- 

 tico, were intended especially for the taking of exercise. 



