SOME GARDENS OF ENCHANTMENT AND RENOWN 



fish ponds in the making of his pleasure 

 grounds. Reproached by a stern moralist 

 of the age for his degenerate indulgence 

 in the luxury of a house for summer as 

 well as a winter residence, this celebrity 

 smilingly replied, " Do you think me 

 less provident than the storks and cranes 

 who have their summer abodes, as well 

 as thpse suited for the cold weather." 

 The Topiarian art or the clipping of 

 trees and hedges into representations of 

 birds, beasts, vases, and even fleets of 

 ships was another characteristic of the 

 gardening of this age. The Emperor 

 Hadrian's villa with its grounds some 

 seven miles in circumference was per- 

 haps the most ambitious of Roman 

 gardens. In one part of this park was 

 an imitation of the lovely vale of Tempe 

 in Greece, whilst another portion was 

 designed to represent the lower regions 

 described by the poet Vergil. 



During the dark ages garden craft had 

 to find its home in the monasteries. 

 Beauty had to be sacrificed to military 

 ends in the mediaeval castle, and there 

 was little room within its walls for such a 

 luxury as a garden. When the use of can- 

 non rendered the walls of these strong- 

 holds useless, they were replaced by 

 princely mansions and villas, with an 

 ample setting of garden charms. The 

 gardening art blossomed forth anew in 

 the 15th and 16th centuries in the Italian 

 cities, now treasuries of vast wealth, 

 whose princes and cardinals found in 

 this a congenial outlet for the display of 

 their riches. Our frontispiece, taken 

 from an old Italian engraving, repre- 

 sents part of the Boboli gardens 

 laid out about the year 1550, at Flor- 

 ence. The quaint looking screens that 

 figure so prominently in this are cut in 

 greenery, and the tall spire-like trees 

 marshalled in formal lines in the back 

 ground, are not Lombardy poplars as 



we of this country would be likely to 

 suppose, but cypress trees. 



The Italians took great pains to make 

 their gardens harmonize with the archi- 

 tecture of their palaces. The garden 

 was a suite of open air apartments 

 as much a part of the home as the 

 house itself. The main features of the 

 grounds were the terrace, the grove, 

 the fountains, the reservoirs and the 

 flower garden. They were places of 

 greenery and water, commanding splen- 

 did views, for they usually nestled 

 against a hill side. The English horti- 

 culturist Evelyn, visiting Boboli in the 

 17th century, says that there was much 

 topiary work there, and that he saw 

 there a rose grafted on an orange tree 

 Splendid gardens were not found in 

 this age in the old world only, but if we 

 can give any credence to the very doubt- 

 ful authority of Spanish waters of the 

 time on our own continent also. These 

 authors may have drawn very largely on 

 their own imagination when they de- 

 scribed the glories of the Coricancha, 

 or Place of gold, the magnificent temple 

 of the Sun at Cuzco, in Peru. The 

 gleam of the soil of the garden there, 

 in the rays of a tropical sun, must have 

 been dazzling, for it was composed with 

 small pieces of fine gold. The graceful 

 stem leaves and tassels of Indian corn 

 were imitated here in gold, the plants 

 rooted so firmly that the strong winds 

 prevalent there could not loosen them. 

 Other plants with leaves of silver, and 

 flowers of gold figured in some gardens 

 of Peru, and doubtless were to be seen 

 here. A flock of twenty sheep of pure 

 gold was grazing in this fairyland, and 

 the shepherds guarding them were of 

 the same bright metal. 



Illustration Fig. 1640 is of a labyrinth, 

 which up to the year 1775, existed in 

 the gardens of Versailles in France. The 



333 



