THE CHARM OF GARDENS 



who have trod this very ground, and Danes and Nor- 

 mans, men also from Anjou, Gascony, and Maine, and a 

 host of others. Then there are the flowers themselves 

 with romances every one. 



If I have a mind to following fancy and turn this into a 

 veritable Roman garden, I can link my fancy with Pliny's 

 facts and see how it would have been ordered and ar- 

 ranged. I can see the villa portico with its terrace in 

 front of it adorned with statues and edged with Box. 

 Below here is a gravel walk on each side of which are 

 figures of animals cut in Box. Then there is the circus at 

 the end of a broad path, where my Roman friend could 

 exercise himself on horseback. Round about the circus 

 are sheared dwarf trees, and clipped Box hedges. On the 

 outside of this is a lawn, smooth and green. Then comes 

 my summer-house shaded with Plane trees, with a marble 

 fountain that plays on the roots of the trees and the 

 grass round them. There would be a walk near by 

 covered with Vines, and ended by an Ivy-covered wall. 

 Several alleys (my imagination has traced their courses) 

 wind in and out to meet in the end of a series of straight 

 walks divided by grass plots, or Box trees cut into 

 a thousand shapes ; some of letters forming my 

 Roman's name ; others the name of his gardener. In 

 these are mixed small pyramid Apple trees ; " and now 

 and then (to follow Pliny's plan) you met, on a sudden, 

 with a spot of ground, wild and uncultivated, as if 

 transplanted hither on purpose." Everywhere are 

 marble or stone seats, little fountains, arbours covered 

 With Vines, and facing beds of Roses, or Violets, or 

 Herbs, and always is to be heard the pleasant murmur 

 of water " conveyed through pipes by the hand of the 

 artificer." 



The more I think of it the more I see how exactly the 

 garden I know fulfils this purpose. Except for a 



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