That Homer was all alive to the rich scenery of nature, is 

 evident, even from his Calypso's Cave: 



All o'er the cavern'd rock a sprouting vine 

 Laid forth ripe clusters. Hence four limpid founts 

 Nigh to each other ran, in rills distinct, 

 Huddling along with many a playful maze. 

 Around them the soft meads profusely bloom 'd 

 Fresh violets and balms.* 



The Egyptians, the Persians, and other remote nations, 

 prided themselves on their magnificent gardens. Diodorus 

 Siculus mentions one " enriched with palm trees, and vines, 

 and every kind of delicious fruit, by flowery lawns and 

 planes, and cypresses of stupendous magnitude, with thick- 

 ets of myrtle, and laurel, and bay." He paints too the 

 attachment which some of the ancients had to landscape 

 scenery: 



None of art's works, but prodigally strown 

 By nature, with her negligence divine. 



The splendid gardens at Damascus, were superintended 

 by a native of Malaga, who " traversed the burning sands 

 of Africa, for the purpose of describing such vegetables as 

 could support the fervid heat of that climate." The cities 

 of Samarcand, Balckd, Ispahan, and Bagdad, were enve- 

 loped and surrounded by luxurious and splendid gardens. 

 No wonder when those countries were partly governed by 

 such celebrated men as Haroun-al-Raschid, and his son 

 Al-Mamoun, the generous protectors of Arabian literature, 



* Mr. Pope thus mentions the vines round this cave : 

 Depending vines the shelving cavern skreen, 

 With purple clusters blushing through the green. 



