Greeks had their gardens also, the building of which increased with the growth 

 of luxury and diminished with the advent of war. 



The Greeks, however, were never great gardeners. Though they had a 

 thorough appreciation of the charm of nature, when they undertook to bring 

 order into their landscapes it was always in a formal way ; and all their designs 

 showed the predominance of the straight line or geometrical curve. 



On the other hand, the Romans, whose art was derived from Greece, paid 

 great attention to their gardens, but, like the Greeks, they kept all their lines 

 geometrical. These Roman gardens, in distinction from the Greek and Egyptian, 

 were often wholly decorative, with the agricultural and economic features left 

 out, but with the addition of sculpture, of clipped hedges and trees, together with 

 greater variety of design. The ellipse and the circle were used in planning, and 

 the differences in level of the Roman hillsides required the frequent use of terraces, 

 which in turn necessitated balustrades and steps. The fashion of trimming trees to 

 make them even more symmetrical than nature had made them, or to make them 

 look like birds and other animals, had already come in; and gradually, as under the 

 Empire life grew more luxurious, Roman gardens became more artificial, larger, 

 and more elaborate, while natural elements disappeared and their place was taken 

 by sculpture and architecture. Pliny, in his letters, describes two of his villas, 

 and many attempts have been made to reproduce the surrounding grounds by 

 means of his- descriptions. With the fall of Rome, the art of gardening slum- 

 bered, along with all other arts, throughout the Dark Ages. 



It is an interesting fact that these classic gardens which we have been con- 

 sidering — and, indeed, nearly all the gardens of which we have any record that 

 were built before the middle of the eighteenth century — were "formal," with 

 their boundaries and principal features laid out along straight lines. The "natu- 

 ral" style in gardening, which came in later, leaves nature much as it is, or else 

 attempts to reproduce nature as it exists in some other spot. The principle is, 

 that, if possible, no sign of the work of man should appear, or that if it does of 

 necessity appear it should obtrude itself as little as possible. Therein lies the radi- 

 cal difference between formal and natural gardening. In a natural scene the road 

 or path is hidden or planted out, whereas in the formal garden paths are an 

 important element in the design, and by their contrast with the vegetation form 

 part of the decorative composition. Each style has had its advocates. 



It was at the tirrie of the Italian Renaissance, that the gardens which have 

 most influenced our modern designs were first built. During the Middle Ages the 

 European nations were too busy making war, or were too poor to be able to afford 



