LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



527 



African 



ginicni. 



C, ' " 



v .. 



'. to that of Persia, in 1617, informs in, that at Schirae, the 

 9 royal garden was so large that it appeared like a fo- 

 relt, the trees consisting of cypress, planes, and elm?-, 

 which were planted in squares and avenues, interming. 

 led with thickets of roses. The fruits were grapes, 

 pears, pistachio nuts, and almond-. In the middle 

 was a Lirge and beautiful lake." Dame-. Barrington I'M 

 Archctologta. vol. vii. p. I1+. Chardin, Le Bruyn, Sir 

 John Malcolm, and other modern travellers, add no- 

 thing material to the above features of an ancient and 

 modem Persian garden. 



Turning from Asia to Africa, we find only the fabu- 

 lous gardens of the Hesperides They arc ranked by 

 Pliny with those of Alcinous and Semiramis, (\at. Hist. 

 lib. xix. c. 4,) and described by Scylax as situated to the 

 east of Berenice, in Cyrenaica, and " lying in a place 

 eighteen fathoms deep, steep on all sides, and two 

 tadia in diameter, covered with trees of various kinds, 

 planted very close together, and interwoven with one 

 another." Hutorictu I'ieit of the Garden* of Antiquity, 

 Ife. p. 29. Among the fruit trees, were apples, pome- 

 granates, mulberries, vines, olives, almonds, and wal- 

 nuts ; and the ornamental trees included the arbutus, 

 myrtle, bay, ivy, and wild olive. 



Little is known of the private gardens of the Greeks, 

 though it is more than probable, that, from their con- 

 nection with Asia, they would imitate, as far as the dif- 

 ference of climate and other circumstances would per- 

 mit, the paradises or garden* of the A<<yrians and Per- 

 sians. This supposition appears justified, from the ad- 

 miration which Xenophon, a Greek philosopher of the 

 fourth century before Christ, expresses for the gardens 

 of Cyrus at Sard is. We are informed by Diogenes L*. 

 ertins, that Epicurus delighted in the' pleasures of a 

 garden, and made choice of it for his school of philosophy. 

 Plato lay* the scene of his dialogue on beauty, in an um- 

 brageous spot on the banks of the Discus: from which 

 proof of his taste for the beauties of natural scenery, it 

 may not be top much to infer, that something of wildnes* 

 and irregularity might have been sometimes admitted 

 in Grecian paradises, as well as art and uniformity. 



The Academus, or public garden of Athens, Plutarch 

 informs us, was originally a rough uncultivated spot 

 till planted by the General Cimon, who conveyed 

 screams of water to it, and laid it out in shady groves, 

 with gymnasia, or places of exercise, and philosophic 

 walks. Among the tree*, were the olive, plane, and 

 elm, which had attained to such extraordinary size, 

 that at the siege of Athens by Sylla, in the war with 

 Mithridates, they were selected to be cut down, to sup- 



er warlike engine*. In the account of these gardens 

 Pausanias, we learn, that they were highly elegant, 

 and decorated with temples, altars, tombs, statues, mo- 

 numents, and towers ; that among the tombs, were those 

 of Pirithous, Theseus, tKdipus, and Adrastes ; and at 

 the entrance was the first altar dedicated to love. In 

 the first eclogue of Theocritus, the scene is laid under 

 the shade of a pine tree ; and the beauty of Helen is 

 compared to a cypress in garden. It would appear 

 from this and other circumstance*, that the love of Te- 

 rebmthmate trees, so general in Alia, was also preva- 

 lent in Greece ; and the same flowers were probably 

 cultivated in both countries. The narcissus was com- 

 mon to both, as also the ivy and the rose. It may be 

 remarked generally, repecting the Asiatic and Grecian 

 gardens of these early ages, that forest trees were chief- 

 ly cultivated for their shade, fruit trees for their pro- 

 duce, and flowers for their odour. At any rate, it doe* 

 not appear that mere beauty of form or foliage entered 



Second 



enoch. 



into their idea of excel 



Such are the scanty particulars which can be col- History, 

 lected respecting the gardens of ancient Greece. If we '**-/"** 

 may be allowed to hazard a conjecture on the subject, 

 we would say that the country of Greece, being by- 

 nature more picturesque, its climate more temperate 

 than the Asiatic regions, and its inhabitants compara- 

 tively active and frugal, paradises of the most luxurious 

 description would not find a place. Kitchen gardens, 

 and ornamental orchards, would no doubt be general ; 

 but had any very extensive gardens or parks been pos- 

 sessed even by the princes, it is highly probable we 

 should have had some traditionary hints respecting 

 them, through their own, or the early Roman authors. 

 That their poets and philosophers had a just taste for 

 the beauties of natural scenery, is sufficiently evident, 

 from Homer's description of the grotto of Calypso, (Ra- 

 cemazionen zur Gartenkitrut tier Alien, bet Her von Bceltin* 

 ger, ffc. 1800,) and from various descriptive passages in 

 Hesiod, /Llian, Theocritus, Atheneus, and other writers. 

 It may just be remarked, however, that their descriptions 

 enlarge chiefly on the shade, coolness, freshness, breezes, 

 fragrance, and repose of such scenes. The picturesque 

 is a species of beauty, which it is not clear that either 

 the Greeks or Romans recognised so distinctly as the 

 modern Europeans. 



SECT. II. Roman Gardening. 



The first mention of a garden in the Roman history, 

 is that of Tarquinius Superbus, by Livy and Diony- 

 sius Halicarnassus. From what they state, it can only 

 be gathered, that it was adjoining to the palace, and 

 abounded in flowers, chiefly poppies. The next in the Garden of 

 order of time are those of Lucullus, situated near Baise, J^"" 1 * 

 in the Bay of Naples. They were of a magnificence 

 and expence rivalling that of the eastern monarchs, 

 and procured to this general the epithet of the Roman 

 Xerxes. They consisted of vast edifices projecting into 

 the sea ; of immense artificial elevations ; of plains form- 

 ed where mountains formerly stood ; and of vast pieces 

 of water, dignified with the pompous titles of Nilus and 

 Euripides. (Plutarch in vita Lucutli ; Sallust, &c.) Lu- 

 cullus had made several expeditions to the eastern parts 

 of Asia, and it is probable he had there contracted a 

 taste for this sort of magnificence, which Varro after- 

 wards ridiculed for its sumptuosity. Lucullus had the 

 merit, however, of introducing the cherry, the peach, 

 and the apricot, from the east ; a benefit which still re- 

 mains to mankind. 



We know little of the gardens of the Augustine age 

 of Virgil and Horace, generally thought to be that 

 in which taste and elegance were eminently conspicu- 

 ous. Virgil and Propertius mention the culture of the 

 pine tree, as beloved by Pan, the tutelar deity of gar- 

 dens ; that the shade of the plane, from the thickness 

 of its foliage, was particularly agreeable, and well adapt- 

 ed for convivial meetings. The myrtle and the bay, 

 they describe as in high esteem for their odour ; and 

 to such a degree of nicety had they arrived in this p.ir- 

 ticular, that these odours were discovered to mingle 

 well together, and the trees were planted adjoining each 

 other for this purpose. Flowej-s, and especially roses 

 and the narcissus, were in great repute. 



From Cicero and the elder Pliny we leam, that trees 

 were generally planted in rows, or in quincunx ; and 

 from these authors and Martial, that the fashion of 

 clipping trees was first introduced by Cneius Matius, a 

 friend of Augustus. Propertius relates, that statues and 

 fountains now became in vogue. A mode ot forcing 

 flowers and fruit*, and of growing cucumbers in the 

 winter season, was alsp in use by means oi talc cases, 



