4 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



more than enough to tell of the making of 

 Gardens. 



Thus it goes on from the day " God planted a 

 garden eastward of Eden ; and there He put the 

 man whom He had formed " ; and ever since the 

 cultivation of a Garden has been the simplest and 

 most pleasing of man's pleasures "for Gardens 

 were before Gardeners, and but some hours after 

 the earth." 



Egypt can claim the earliest historical Garden. 

 " Gardens are frequently represented in the tombs 

 of Thebes and other parts of Egypt," and much 

 that was claimed as a novelty at a later date was 

 already to be found in these pictures. 



Imagination easily pictures the grandeur of the 

 hanging Gardens of Babylon, built by "a prince 

 called Cyrus for a beautiful courtesan, who, being 

 a Persian, coveted a meadow upon a mountain- 

 top," in imitation of her own land. These Gardens 

 were constructed in a curious manner terraces, 

 thickly covered with earth, and forming terraced 

 groves with fountains and masses of trees to give 

 shade. 



King Solomon, who in his wisdom overlooked 

 nothing great or small in this world, did not forget 

 to praise the glories of a Garden, nor to record his 

 love thereof. Perhaps no one among the great 

 number who have written about " Gardens fair " 

 has sung more exquisitely than the great king in 



