10 



better fitted for this purpose, by varieties in the sur- 

 face of the landscape, the abundance of water, and 

 tlie frequently wild and picturesque beauty of the 

 scenery, than New-England. Lake Champlain, — 

 Lake Winnepiseogee, with the neighboring White 

 Hills, — the charming valley of the Connecticut, and 

 a thousand other hills and streams of less celebrity, 

 but not inferior beauty, — the islands south of the 

 Cape, and in our own harbor, — all present the most 

 attractive natural situations, and only require the 

 magical touches of art, to be converted into scenes, 

 as elegant as any that grace the most cultivated re- 

 gions of Europe, or bloom perennially in the pages 

 of the poets. 



In this, as in all the other arts, the progress of 

 taste has been slow and gradual. It is a striking 

 proof of the simple state of Horticulture in the time 

 of Homer, that, in describing the gardens of Alcinous, 

 King of Phoeacia, a prince to whom he has given a 

 palace with brazen walls and silver columns ; — de- 

 scribing them, too, with so much latitude of imagina- 

 tion, that he has enriched them with the gift of per- 

 petual spring ; — he can still imagine nothing more 

 magnificent than an enclosure of four acres devoted 

 exclusively to fruit. 



Four acres was the allotted space of ground, 

 Fenced with a green enclosure ail around ; 

 Tall thriving trees confessed the fruitful mould, 

 The reddening apple ripens into gold. 

 Here the blue fig with luscious juice o'erflows ; 

 With deeper red the full pomegranate glows; 

 The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear. 

 And verdant olives flourish round the year; 

 Beds of all various kinds, forever green, 

 In beauteous order terminate the scene. 



