HISTORY OF GARDENING. 



Part I. 



by lofty pillars, on the banks of the Euphrates, in the middle of the city of Babylon. 

 They are said to have contained groves, fountains, and, in short, eveiy object which we 

 have mentioned, as appertaining to the more ordinary description of eastern gardens. 

 Their object was to gratify his Median queen, by that sort of verdant scenery and distant 

 prospect, to which she had been accustomed in the more romantic country of her birth. 

 The height, then, would give that commanding prospect of the water and shipping of 

 the Euphrates, and the citj', as well as the gardens wdthin and without its walls, which 

 she particularly desired. The air in that elevated region would be more cool than below ; 

 the noise and bustle of the city would cease to be offensive ; the whole would be more 

 exposed to breezes and winds ; and the mind, deriving so much enjoyment in so singu- 

 lar and elevated a situation, must have experienced emotions at once subHme and roman- 

 tic. But a faint idea of these gardens will be excited, by imagining the quadrangle of" 

 Somerset House crowned with a portion of Kensington gardens j or of the summer 

 garden of Petersburgh placed over the Kremlin in Moscow. 



530. How and ivith lohat propriety the eastern style came afterwards to be adopted 

 in Greece, Italy, France, and Jinully in England, is our next enquiry. The principle or 

 instinct of imitation, would be the first cause why the more distant nations, whether 

 colonies from the east, ■ or returning travellers or conquerors, adopted this parent style. 

 This is so ob\Tious, as to require no comment beyond what wiU be furnished by individual 

 enquiry into our earliest tastes, habits, and predilections in dress, amusements, furniture, 

 and other matters of common life. The next principle is that of use or fitness, which 

 would vary in application, proportionably to the distance and different circumstances of 

 the imitating country. Thus it would not exactly apply in Greece or Italy, where the 

 climate was more temperate, active exercise more congenial, and the habits of the 

 wealthy, for a long time at least, comparatively frugal. Add to this, that verdant land- 

 scapes, shade, breezes, rills, waterfalls, and lakes, with their accompaniments of odors, 

 murmurs, singing birds, reflections of objects, were more liberally distributed over the 

 face of general nature. The more active character of man in such countries w^ould, in 

 time, also appropriate to their use from this natural abundance, a greater variety of 

 fruits and legumes. 



531. The eastern style assumed a variation in its character tinder the Bovians. The 

 necessarily different culture required for perfecting fruits and culinary vegetables in a 

 different climate, would give rise to the orchard and kitchen-garden. This would 

 simplify the objects of the omamental garden, which would thus exhibit less a collection 

 of natural beauties, than the display of art, the convenience of taking exercise, here a 

 pleasure rather than a fatigue, and the gi-atifications of shade, cool breezes, and aromatic 

 odors. A prospect of the surrounding country was desired, because it was beautiful ; 

 and where, from various circumstances, it was interrupted by the garden or its boundary 

 fence, mounds or hills of earth were raised, and, in time, prospect-towers appended to 

 the houses. Greater extent would be required for more athletic recreations, and would 

 be indulged in also by the wealth and pride of the owner for obvious reasons. Abridg- 

 ment of labor would suggest the use of the sheers, rather than the more tardy pruning 

 knife in thickening a row of trees. A row of low trees so thickened, would suggest the 

 idea of a row of cUpt shrubs. Hence at first hedges ; and subsequently, when art and 

 expense had exhausted every beauty, and when the taste had become tired of repetition, 

 verdant sculpture would be invented, as affording novel, curious, and fantastic beauty, 

 bordering, as do all extremes, upon absuVdity. A more extended and absolute appropri- 

 ation of territory, than what we may suppose to have taken place in the comparatively 

 rude counti-ies of the east, w^ould lead to agricultural pursuits, and these again would 

 give rise to the various arrangements of a Roman country-residence which we 'know to 

 have existed, and which it would be superfluous to describe. Various other circumstances 

 might be added ; but enough has been stated to show that the gardening of the Romans 

 was perfectly natural to them, under the circumstances in which they were placed ; it 

 suited their wants, and produced scenes which they found to be beautiful, and was there- 

 fore in the justest taste. To have imitated the scenery of nature, or studied picturesque 

 beauty in a garden, would have been merely adding a drop to the ocean of beauties 

 which surrounded them. Expense incurred for this purpose could never have pro- 

 cured applause to the owner, since the more like nature the production, the less would 

 it excite notice. All that was left for man to do, therefore, was to create those beauties 

 of art, convenience, and magnificence, which mark out his dwelling-place, and gratify 

 his pride and taste by their contrast with surrounding nature. 



532. The gardening of the Romans ivas copied in France and Britain, with little vari- 

 ation beyond those dictated by necessity and the difference of climate. It was found to be 

 perfectly beautiful and agreeable ; and would have continued to prevail, had Britain con- 

 tinued in similar chcumstances to those in which she was at the time of its introduction. 

 But such has been the progress of improvement in this country, that the general face of 

 nature became as it were an ancient garden, and eveiy estate was laid out, bounded, and 



