g6 Demesnes. 



women as well as men, and of all ranks and ages, that 

 which we now come to speak of seems to invite the- 

 special attention of great numbers of high orders of 

 the female mind, who wish for more suitable occupa- 

 tions than circumstances have hitherto offered to 

 satisfy their aspirations. 



In early times of Eastern civilization, Arboricul- 

 ture was practised by Jews and Greeks, and still 

 more by Romans, for ornament as well as use ; and 

 some kind of landscape gardening, on a pretty large 

 scale, engaged the attention of at least a few great 

 women as well as great men. 



One of the first instances of which I have heard 

 was designed with artistic skill by the greatest Sove- 

 reign of his day, to gratify the taste of a lady. 

 Already we have glanced at those great works which 

 the King of Babylon wrought by captive slaves, to- 

 create on artificial hills outside his city ornamental 

 gardens, in imitation of the hills at Ecbatana, the 

 country of his queen Amytis. We may also remem- 

 ber the reply of King Cyrus the younger, when com- 

 plimented on the beauty of his hanging gardens at 

 Sardis, that they were wrought by the labour of his 

 own hands. In the polished age of Pericles, at the 

 height of Grecian civilization, Athenian philosophers 

 took much pleasure in such recreations, Cicero and 

 others, in the Augustan age, and many in later days 

 of Imperial Rome, expended large sums in planting 

 and adorning parks for public benefit as well as for 

 their own private enjoyment. 



