10 



HISTORY OF GARDENING. 



Part I. 



chicory, cucumbers, ivy, acanthus, myrile, narcissus, and roses. — Both Virgil and Pro- 

 pertius' mention the culture of the pine-tree as beloved by Pan, the tutelar deity of 

 gardens ; and that the shade of the plane, from the thickness of its foliage, was particu- 

 larly agreeable, and well adapted for convivial meetings. The myrtle and the bay they 

 describe as in high esteem for their odor ; and to such a degree of nicety had they 

 arrived in tliis particular, that the composition or mixture of odoriferous trees became a 

 point of study ; and those trees were planted adjoining each ether, wliose odors assimi- 

 lated together. Open groves in hot countries are particularly desirable for their shade, 

 and they seem to have been the only sort of plantation of forest-trees then in use. From 

 Ci^iero and the elder Pliny, we learn that the quincunx manner of planting them was 

 very generally adopted ; and from Martial, that the manner of clipping trees was first 

 introduced by Cneus Matins, a friend of Augustus. Statues and fountains, according to 

 Propertius, came into vogue about the same time, some of them casting out water in the 

 way Oi' jets-d'eau, to occasion surprise, as was afterwards much practised in Italy in the 

 dawn of gardening in the sixteenth ceiitui^. 



38. The gardeyis and pleasure- groimds of FUny the consul are described at lengtli 

 in his Letters, and delineations of their ichnography have been published by Felibien 

 in 1699, and by Castell in 1728. Some things, which could only be supplied by the 

 imagination, are to be found in both these authors ; but on the whole their plans, 

 especially those of Castell, may be considered as conveying a tolerably correct idea of 

 a first-rate Roman villa, as in the Laurentinum, arid of an extensive country-residence, 

 as in the Thuscum. 



39. The Villa Laurentinum was a winter residence on the Tiber, between Rome 

 and the sea ; the situation is near Paterno, seventeen miles from Rome, and is now 

 called San Lorenzo. The garden was small, and is but slightly described. It was 

 surrounded by hedges of box, and where that had failed, by rosemary. Tliere were 

 platforms and terraces; and figs, vines, and mulberries were the fruit-trees. Pliny 

 seems to have valued this retreat chiefly from its situation relatively to Rome and the 

 surrounding country, which no walls, fortresses, or belt of wood, hid from his view. On 

 this region he expatiates with delight, pointing out all " the beauty of his woods, his rich 

 meadows covered with cattle, the bay of Ostia, the scattered villas upon its shore, and 

 the blue distance of the mountains ; his porticoes and seats for different views, and his 

 favorite little cabinet in which they were all united. So great Avas Pliny's attention in 

 this particidar, that he not only contrived to see some part of this luxurious landscape 

 from every^ room in his house, but even while he was bathing, and when he reposed him- 

 self! for he tells us of a couch which had one view at the head, another at the feet, and 

 another at the back." {Preface to Malthus's Introduction to Girardiiis Essay, 8cc. p. 20.) 

 We may add with Eustace and other modern travellers, that the same general appear- 

 ance of woods and meadows exists there to this day. 



40. Fliny's Thuscum, or Tiiscidan Villa (fg. 3.), now F^-ascatif was situated in a 

 natural amphitheatre of the Apennines, whose lofty summits were then, as now, crowned 

 with forests of oak, and their fertile sides richly covered with corn-fields, vineyards, 

 copses, and villas. Pliny's description of this retreat, though well known, is of import- 

 ance, as showing what was esteemed good taste in the gardens and grounds of a highly 

 accomplished Roman nobleman and philosopher, towards the end of the first century, 

 under the reign of Trajan, when Rome was still in all her glory, and the mistress of the 

 world in arts and in arms. 



41. ^ general tour of the Tusculan Gardens is given by Mai thus and Dr. Fal- 

 coner. Their extent, Malthus thinks, may have been from three to four acres, and 

 their situation round the house. 



Beginmng there, the xystus or terrace (5), says the author of the Historical Essay, is described as in 

 the front of the portico, and near to the house ; from this descended a lawn covered with acanthus or 

 moss (13), and adorned with figures of animals cut out in box-trees, answering alternately to one another. 

 This lawn was again surrounded by a walk enclosed with tonsil evergreens sheared into a variety of forms. 

 Beyond this was 3» place of exercise (2), of a circular form, ornamented in the middle with box-trees 

 sheared as before into numberless different figures, together with a plantation of shrubs kept low by clip - 

 ping. The whole was fenced in by a wall covered by box rising in different ranges to the top. 



Proceeding from another quarter of the house, there was a small space of ground, shaded by four 

 plane-trees (7), with a fountain in the centre, which, overflowing a marble basin, watered the trees and 

 the verdure beneath them. Opposite to another part of the building was a plantation of trees, in form of 

 a hippodrome (6), formed of box and plane trees alternately planted, and connected together by ivy. Be- 

 hind these were placed bay-trees, and the ends of the hippodrome, which were semicircular, were formed 

 of cypress (8). The internal walks were bordered with rose-trees, and were in a winding direction, which 

 however terminated in a straight path, which again branched into a variety of others, separated from one 

 another by box-hedges ; and these, to the great satisfaction of the owner, were sheared into a variety of 

 shapes and letters (10), some expressing the name of the master, others that of the artificer, while here and 

 there small obelisks were placed, intermixed with fruit-trees. 



Further on was another walk, ornamented with trees sheared as above described, at the upper end of 

 which was an alcove of white marble shaded by vines, and supported by marble pOlars, from the seat of 

 which recess issued several streams of water, intended to appear as if pressed out by the weight of those 

 which reposed upon it, which water was again received in a basin, that was so contrived as to seem al- 

 ways full without overflowing. Corresponding to this was a fountain, or jet d'eau, that threw out water 

 to a considerable height, and which ran off as fast as it was thrown out. An elegant Dftarble summer- 



