5/6 GARDENS OF VARIOUS NATIONS. 



others, divided by box hedges. In one place you have a little 

 meadow ; in another the box is cut into a thousand different 

 forms, — sometimes into letters expressing the name of the master, 

 sometimes that of the artificer ; whilst here and there little obelisks 

 rise intermixed alternately with fruit-trees ; when, on a sudden, in 

 the midst of this elegant regularity, you are surprised with an imi- 

 tation of the negligent beauties of rural nature, in the centre of which 

 lies a spot surrounded with a knot of dwarf plane-trees. Beyond 

 there is a walk planted with the smooth and twining acanthus, where 

 the trees are also cut into a variety of names and shapes. At the 

 upper end is an alcove of white marble, shaded with vines, supported 

 by four small Carystian pillars. From this bench the water gushing 

 through several little pipes, as if it were pressed out by the weight 

 of the persons who reposed themselves upon it, falls into a stone 

 cistern underneath, from whence it is received into a fine polished 

 marble basin, so artfully contrived that it is always full without ever 

 overflowing. Corresponding to this is a fountain which is incessantly 

 emptying and filling, for the water which it throws up to a great 

 height, falling back into it, is by means of two openings returned as 

 fast as it is received. Fronting the alcove (and which reflects as 

 great an ornament to it as it borrows from it) stands a summer- 

 house of exquisite marble, the doors whereof project and open into 

 a green enclosure; as from its upper and lower windows the eye is 

 presented with a variety of different verdures." Adjoining this 

 summer-house was a little room in which Pliny was wont to lie on 

 a couch and fancy himself in a wood. In this place was also another 

 fountain, and " in different quarters are disposed several marble seats, 

 which," continued Pliny, "serve, no less than the summer-house, as so 

 many reliefs after one is wearied with walking. Near each seat is a 

 little fountain ; and throughout the whole hippodrome, several small 

 rills run murmuring along, wheresoever the hand of art thought 

 proper to conduct them, watering here and there different spots of 

 verdure, and in their progress refreshing the whole." 



From this account we find that the Roman gardens at that time 



