I. EGYPTIANS OF THE TWELFTH DYNASTY PICKING OKRA (left) AND HARVEST- 

 ING FIGS (right) WITH THE DUBIOUS ASSISTANCE OF TRAINED MONKEYS 



A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE GARDEN 



H. H. MANCHESTER 



Editors' Note: — It is amazing to find the Egyptians nearly six thousand years ago raising Cucumbers, Onions, Carrots, and other 

 staples still grown by us to-day; to come upon them busily irrigating, transplanting, cultivating their gardens with all the zest and much 

 of the skill of a twentieth-century gardener. For all they lived so very long ago and so very far away we feel ourselves their kin, linked 

 to them by a fundamental instinct common to both — the need and the joy of delving. 



It is pleasant to reflect that the beauty of the garden has long been a source of delight to men in many lands, and high tea on the 

 terrace is lent an added piquancy by the memory of Asurbanipal and his queen dining out-of-doors in ancient Assyria with similar en- 

 joyment — and greater state — some iwenty-five-hunared-odd years back. 



To follow the footsteps of the garden from its earliest beginnings up through the ages; to trace its passage from Egypt to Asia 

 Minor, Greece, and Rome: to watch its development in the hands of Mahommedan and mediaeval monk isa superlatively fascinating 

 pursuit to gardener and antiquarian alike who will find in Mr. H. H. Manchester an able and dispassionate guide during the coming 

 months when subsequent articles of this series are to appear. 



I. AT THE DAWN OF HISTORY 



Gardening in Ancient Egypt — Defeating Drought by Irrigation — Utility and Religious Significance 



' ;,j£TOW old is the garden? When did the idealist of the 

 "'-vl family, which in this case was just as likely the woman 

 as the man, become dissatisfied with what could be 

 gathered from the garden of nature, and establish cul- 

 tivated enclosures? 



A few years ago it would have been impossible to assign any 

 instructive historic limits to the antiquity of this step, but the 

 amazing wall frescoes in the cave of Altamira and other caverns 

 of the Pyrenese district, discovered about 1900, suggest that 

 when they were made, perhaps 20,000 years ago, man was still 

 living in the glacial age, and agriculture had not yet begun. 

 The remains indicate that the cultivation of the soil did not be- 

 gin before the New Stone Age, probably 8,000 or 10,000 years 

 ago. 

 At the earliest dawn of history in Egypt, however, the records 



TJMffh 



wntwiyrrraxLDec 



prove that the garden was already a recognized feature of life 

 along the Nile. 



Methen, one of the governors of the Third Dynasty, had a 

 sketch of his life, which is the earliest biography known, inscribed 

 on his tomb at Sakkara. He began life as a scribe, then became 

 overseer of a storehouse, and finally rose to be governor of sev- 

 eral districts in the Delta. One of the favors which he received 



II. Watering Vegetables in 

 Egypt; as usual in these very 

 early drawings the flat sur- 

 face is represented full view. 

 Twelfth Dynasty 



237 



111 An Egyptian watering his gar- 

 den by means of the shaduf, one of 

 the earliest inventions for lightening 

 heavy labor and which we of to-day 

 still find in modified form in the fa- 

 miliar well-sweep of country districts 



