114 



HISTORY OF GARDENING. 



PAftI I. 



523. Climates highly favorable for the productions of gardening, are often unfavorable 

 to the jrrogress of the art. In Persia and some parts of America, where the finest peaches 

 are produced, the art of grafting is unknown or not practised ; and, in general, in the 

 hot countries, where melons, gourds, and other rapid-growing annuals so readily produce 

 their fruit, the culture of culinary leaves and legumes is neglected. In the West India 

 islands and great part of America, the gourd serves the purposes of the cabbage, turnip, 

 lettuce, and spinach, and with garlic, onions, and yams, constitutes their principal culi- 

 nary crops. Chardin, after enumerating the natural products of Persia, says, " we are 

 not to conclude from thence that they have the finest gardens in the world ; on the 

 contrary, by a very general rule, there, where nature has been most abundant and liberal 

 in her productions, art is proportionably rude and unknown ; for, nature having gardened 

 so well, almost nothing is left for art." 



524. Climates and soils comparatively unfavorable for fruits and plants, are naturally 

 conducive to skill in gardening. A very variable and unsettled climate, Neill observes 

 (Gen. Report of Scotland, ch. ix.), tends to call into action all the powers of the mind, 

 and to produce habits of increasing attention ; and where a gardener is able to raise 

 tolerable crops, both of the more tender fruits and vegetables, in climates and situations 

 adverse to tlfe production of either, he has doubtless more real merit in accomplishing 

 his object, even though the articles should be somewhat inferior in quality, than he who, 

 in a propitious soil and climate, raises them to the utmost perfection. Yet the merits of 

 such a gardener are often overlooked, and the master, through ignorance or indifference, 

 or a niggai'dly penuriousness of approbation, receives that as an effort of mechanical 

 routine, which is due to a rare union of science, skill, and indefatigable attention. 



525. The climate and country of England, Sir W. Temple considers as highly favor- 

 aWe for gardening. " Perhaps few countries," he says, " are before us in the number 

 of our plants, and I believe none equals us in a variety of fruits, which may be justly- 

 called good, and from the earliest cherry and strawberry to the last apples and pears, 

 may furnish every day of the circling year. For the taste and perfection of what we 

 esteem the best, I may truly say that the French, who have eaten my peaches and grapes 

 at Shene, in no very ill year, have generally concluded, that the last are as good as any 

 they have eaten in France on this side Fontainbleau : and the first as good as any they 

 have ate in Gascony ; I mean those which come from the stone, and are properly called 

 peaches, not those which are hard, and are termed pavies ; for these cannot grow in too 

 warm a climate, nor ever be good in a cold, and are better at Madrid than in Gascony 

 itself. Italians have agreed, my white figs to be as good as any of that sort in Italy, 

 which is the earlier kind of white fig there ; for in the latter kind and the blue, we cannot 

 come near tlie warm climates, no more than in the Frontignan or Muscat grape. My 

 orange-trees are as large as any I saw when I was young in France, except those of 

 Fontainbleau, or what I have since seen in the Low Countries, except some very old 

 ones of the Prince of Orange's ; as laden with flowers as can well be, as full of fruit as 

 I suffer or desire them, and as well tasted as are commonly brought over, except the 

 best sorts of Seville and Portugal. And thus much I could not but say in defence of 

 our climate, which is so much and so generally decried abroad. — The truth is, our 

 climate wants no heat to produce excellent fruits ; and the default of it is only the short 

 season of our heats and summers, by which many of the latter are left behind, and im- 

 perfect with us. But all such as are ripe before the end of August are, for aught I know, 

 as good with us as any where else. This makes me esteem the true regions of gardens 

 in England to be the compass of ten miles about London ; where the incidental warmth 

 of air, from the fires and steams of so vast a town, makes fruits, as well as corn, a great 

 deal forwarder than in Hampshire or Wiltshire, though more southward by a full degree." 



Sect. II. Influence of Climate and Manners on Gardening, as an Art of Design and Taste. 



526. Taste in gardening depeyids jointly on the state of society, and on climate. Since 

 the introduction of the modern or natural style of gardening into Britain, it has been a 

 common practice to condemn indiscriminately every other taste as unnatural and 

 absurd. If by unnatural, an allusion is made to the verdant scenery of uncultivated 

 nature, we allow that this is the case ; but we would ask, if for that reason, it follows 

 that ancient gardens were not as natural and reasonable in their day, as any of the man- 

 ners and customs of those times? Gardening, as a liberal art, is destined to create 

 scenes, in which both beauty and use are combined ; admitting, therefore, that both 

 styles are alike convenient, to say that the modern only is beautiful, is to say that' there 

 is only one sort of beauty adapted to gardening ; or that there is no beauty but that of 

 the picturesque ; or that all former ages, and every country, excepting Britain, is in a 

 state of barbarism with respect to this art. If we take the term natural in a more exten- 

 sive sense, and apply it to the climate, situation, condition, and manners of a people ; 

 and if we allow these to be natural, why may not their gardening be natural, as well as 

 their particular customs and dress ? The gardening we now condemn so unreservedly, 



