Book I. 



GARDENING IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 



6S 



fountains, the clipped hedges, and the narrow xvalka, the circulation would be less rapid, the shade lees 

 deep, and the refreshing vapor would be wanting. {Tmvnsend's Travels in Spain, i. 360.) 



Of t/te palace and gardens of Aranjuez, Baretti observes {Tour in 1776, vol. ii.), " that a poet would 

 say, that Venus and Love had here consulted with Catullus and Petrarch, in order to construct a country- 

 residence worthy of Psyche, of Lesbia, of Laura, or of some Infanta of Spain." The park, which is several 

 leagues in circumference, is intersected by alleys, three, and even four miles in length; these alleys are 

 formed of double rows of elms, and are sufficiently wide for four carriages to drive abreast. On each side, 

 between the rows of trees, is a canal kept clear by a continual stream which passes through it. This water 

 has contributed to render the trees of an enormous size and thick verdure from top to bottom. The com- 

 partments, or islands, formed by the alleys and the canals, are covered with copse, and occupied with deer, 

 wild boars, hares, rabbits, pheasants, partridges, and other wild animals and birds, which are regularly fed 

 by certain shepherds or attendants, and have incredibly multiplied. This park, like the garden of Eden, 

 is divided by a river (the Tagus), and what is remarkable and prince-like, it is without surrounding walU, 

 but verges into an open hilly country. The palace is near the centre of the park, on the margin of the 

 river, and both banks are united by a bridge of five arches. In front of the palace is an immense cir- 

 cular level lawn, ornamented with four trees in its centre. On the whole, according to Baretti's description, 

 this must have been the finest park in the old style in the world. 



295. Of jyrivate gardens, a few are mentioned by Townsend, and Sir John Carr, some 

 as belonging to British merchants, and situated round the principal sea-ports, and a few 

 to Spanish nobles in the interior. At the Retiro, near Malaga, a seat of Count Villacasa, 

 and formerly a royal residence, are gardens in the Moorish style, with straight cypress 

 walks, and excellent water-works. The archbishop of Valencia has a countrj'-house and 

 beautiful gardens at Puzol, near the city. The hermitages of Montserrat, near Tarra- 

 gona, abound in oak, olives, ash, elm, box, myrtle, eglantine, jessamine, rosemary, 

 lavender, thyme, and other aromatic shrubs and plants, tastefully disposed among tlie 

 rocks and declivities, by the hand of nature, with very little assistance from man. 



Granjas, the seat of Don Ramon Fortuny^ near Tarragona, appears to be in good taste, combining the 

 ancient style with the cultivation of the orange, fig, vine, olive, and other fruits, and with an accidental 

 mixture of rocks and picturesque scenery. A very interesting engraving of this peculiar and beautiful 

 residence is given by Sir John Carr, in his travels in Spain ; the doors of the dining-room, he informs us, 

 open into a small garden, the walls-_of which are covered with myrtles, jessamines, and rosos, and the view 

 is over an orchard of olives, oranges, and pomegranates. In the centre of the garden are grotesque water- 

 works. We are not aware of any attempt to introduce the modern style of landscape-gardening in this 

 country. 



296. Gardening in Portugal is very little attended to as an art of taste. Travellers 

 mention a few villas belonging to merchants in the neighbourhood of Lisbon ; and, as 

 usual, there are some avenues or public walks near the town. Montserrat, near Cintra, 

 a seat of the. late eminent merchant, Beckford, was formed at immense expense by a na- 

 tive of Cornwall for M. de Vismes, and further improved by the former gentleman. It 

 is laid out in the geometric style ; abounds in inequalities, stairs, terraces, statues, and 

 orange-trees. Of late, we are informed, it has been much neglected. Repton (Frag, on 

 Lands. Gard. 1815,) gives an engraving of a plan which he had sent out to Lisbon, for 

 laying out a small garden in the modern style. 



SuBSECT. 2. Spanish and Portuguese Gardening, in respect to the Culture of Flowers 

 and Plants of Ornament. 



297. The study of plants is of great antiquity in Spain. This study was introduced 

 by the Arabs ; there was a considerable collection of plants at Seville early in the 

 eleventh century ; and half the common plants of the country, Harte informs us, have 

 names derived from the Arabic. The succeeding seven centuries present a blank in this 

 branch of gardening histoi-y. According to Deleuze, the taste shown for botany in Spain 

 and Portugal, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, declined with tlie sciences ; 

 and that country where they had been cultivated when the rest of Europe was in a state 

 of barbarism, appeared to sink into apathy, after having shone with the greatest ecl^t 

 under Charles the Fifth and Emanuel of Portugal. 



298. The public garden of Madrid was established in 1753. Ferdinand the Sixth gave 

 its direction to his first physician, Don Joseph Sagnol. He bought the private garden of 

 Don Joseph Queer, who cultivated at home a great number of foreign plants : he named 

 this botanist professor, and added Don Jean Minuart. At the same time, he an-anged 

 instructions for travellers going to America, and ordered them to bring home seeds, and 

 to add the indication of the climate, and the nature of the soil where they collected them. 

 They also sent travellers with particular orders to make collections of vegetables. It is 

 from these treasures that the royal garden of Madrid has become the nursery of the plants 

 of Peru, Mexico, and Chili ; and from thence they have been sent to other gardens of 

 Europe. The same king, Sir J. E. Smith informs us (Suppt. Encyc. Brii. art. Botany), 

 invited Linnseus, with the offer of a large pension, to superintend a college formed for the 

 purpose of making new enquiries into the history of nature and the art of agriculture. 

 Linnaeus, as appears by his correspondence, recommended Loefling. 



299. A taste for flowers and plants of ornament is not very general in Spain, thougli 

 odoriferous flowers, as the jessamine, the orange, &c. are said to be in repute with the 

 ladies ; and various sorts are grown in tlie conventual gardens of the priests, for official 

 decorations in churches and oratories. 



300. The botanic garden of Coimbra in Portugal was founded in 1773. 



