OUR CITY GARDENS 



paintings at Pompeii, nearly to reconstruct the Greek and 

 Roman gardens : 



^^They consist," says Gaston Boissier, "of regular paths, 

 contained within two hedges of witch-elms and intersecting 

 one another at right angles. In the centre is usually a sort 

 of round space with a basin, in which swans float. Little 

 green arbours have been contrived at intervals, formed of in- 

 tertwined reeds and covered with vines ; inside these, we see a 

 marble column or a statue and benches placed all round for 

 the convenience of strollers. The paintings remind one of 

 that sentence of Quintilian's which ingeniously expresses the 

 taste of his time: *Is there anything more beautiful than a 

 quincunx so arranged that, from whichever side we behold it, 

 we see straight paths?' " 



We find the same arrangement, more or less prominent ac- 

 cording as it comes before or after the Renascence, in all the 

 Italian gardens ; and Le Notre's patterned flower-gardens but 

 revived a tradition that had never quite died out. This tradi- 

 tion is significant. It was evidently born of a need of har- 

 mony inherent in our nature. It has always seemed to us 



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