4 Gleanings in Old Garden Literature. 



when ages grow to civility and elegance, man comes 

 to build stately sooner than to garden finely : as if 

 gardening were the greater perfection." 



Modern science has brought our gardens 

 to their present state, and the development 

 of society evolved from the ancient and 

 original idea of plantations for the general 

 benefit, of which we seem to have a sort of 

 foreshadow in the Book of Genesis, the 

 conception of enclosures dedicated to par- 

 ticular service. Our nature, modified by 

 circumstances and interests, gradually out- 

 grew its contentment with the free and 

 unrestricted use of the fruits of the earth, 

 and each man or each tribe claimed and 

 held, personally or in common, the ground 

 adjacent to the dwelling or the settlement. 



Centuries elapsed before the garden became 

 what we see it ; and at the present moment 

 every country is governed in its system of 

 planting, and in its principles of cultivation 

 and husbandry, by the resources of its soil 

 and the demands of its population. 



The dawn of the British primeval life 

 was spent amid dark and boggy forests, and 



