174 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



ancestors in this country, distinguished by the name of a 

 pleasure-garden. 



A square piece of ground was originally parted off in early ages 

 for the use of the family to exclude cattle and ascertain the 

 property, it was separated from the fields by a hedge. As pride 

 and desire of privacy increased, the inclosure was dignified by 

 walls ; and in climes where fruits were not lavished by the ripen- 

 ing glow of nature and soil, fruit-trees were assisted and sheltered 

 from surrounding winds by the like expedient ; for the inundation 

 of luxuries which have swelled into general necessities, have almost 

 all taken their source from the simple fountain of reason. 



When the custom of making square gardens enclosed with walls 

 was thus established, to the exclusion of nature and prospect, 

 pomp and solitude combined to call for something that might en- 

 rich and enliven the insipid and unanimated partition. Fountains, 

 first invented for use, which grandeur loves to disguise and throw 

 out of the question, received embellishments from costly marbles, 

 and at last, to contradict utility, tossed their waste of waters into 

 air in spouting columns. Art, in the hands of rude man, had at 

 first been made a succedaneum to nature ; in the hands of ostenta- 

 tious wealth it became the means of opposing nature ; and the 

 more it traversed the march of the latter, the more nobility thought 

 its power was demonstrated. 



Canals measured by the line were introduced instead of 

 meandering streams, and terrasses were hoisted aloft in opposi- 

 tion to the facile slopes that imperceptibly unite the valley to 

 the hill. Balustrades defended these precipitate and dangerous 

 elevations, and flights of steps rejoined them to the subjacent flat 

 from which the terrass had been dug. Vases and sculpture were 

 added to these unnecessary balconies, and statues furnished the 

 lifeless spot with mimic representations of the excluded sons of 

 men. Thus difficulty and expense were the constituent parts of 

 those sumptuous and selfish solitudes; and every improvement 

 that was made, was but a step farther from nature. The tricks 

 of water-works to wet the unwary, not to refresh the panting 

 spectator, and parterres embroidered in patterns like a petti- 



