THE POETRY OF GARDENING. 95 



fulness. It belongs not to the poetry, but to the mock 

 sentimentalism of gardening. Are the gardens of the Hes- 

 perides less beautiful because of their golden fruit ? Did 

 Ulysses less admire the gardens of Alcinous for their pears 

 and pomegranates, their figs and olives ? 



crvKai re yXvuepai, Kal eAoTcu T7jAe0oco<rat. 



Od. i). 115. 



The "brilliant-fruited" trees were rightly reckoned the 

 garden's greatest ornament. 



In the description of the Corycian veteran's reclaimed 

 plot of waste the most exquisite description of an humble 

 garden that poet ever drew .the first apple of autumn is 

 as much his pride as the first rose of spring. Nor was his 

 care of his hyacinths the less because his simple herbs 

 offered him an unbought feast at nightfall. Of all the 

 books that were never written I think D'Israeli has a 

 paper on such a subject surely the one of all others most 

 to be regretted is Virgil's * Garden.' Though the fruit- 

 trees and esculent vegetables were doubtless among the 

 Romans the main object of their gardening, yet it is a great 

 mistake to suppose that flowers were not also cultivated 

 solely for their own sake, and these Virgil would not have 

 forgotten. 



" nee sera comantem 

 Narcissum, aut flexi tacuissem vimen acanthi.' 



The Georgics were the poet's labour of love ; and when 

 we see how, in " wood and fell," he rises above the tame 

 monotony of " arms and the man," we cannot but love to 

 dream over the splendid passages which his * Garden' 

 would have suggested, and picture to ourselves how glori- 



