368 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to delight and impress the spectators. The arches had in them many 

 stately rooms of all kinds and for all purposes. In one of these rooms 

 was a hydraulic engine which drew water from the Euphrates by 

 unseen channels and pipes, and maintained the multitudinous trees 

 and plants in almost perennial freshness." 



There are various accounts of the reasons for the formation of this 

 mountain of gardenage and masonry. Victor Hugo says that they were 

 made to gratify the request of one of Nebuchadnezzar's queens who 

 delighted to receive therein the homage of conquered monarchs ; others 

 say that Seminarius, who designed Babylon, conceived the hanging gardens 

 as part of the scheme. 



Man, when he is intent upon pronouncing himself and showing his 

 power, takes means other than planting. Anyone, he says, can plant, but 

 it takes a clever man to build tellingly and to purpose. Whereas anyone 

 who has tried to plant effectively finds how difficult it is, and with this 

 agrees incisive Lord Bacon. " God Almighty first planted a Garden ; 

 and indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest 

 refreshment to the Spirits of Man, without which Buildings and Palaces 

 are but gross Handy- works. And a Man shall ever see, that when Ages 

 grow to Civility and Elegancy, Men come to build stately, sooner than to 

 garden finely : as if Gardening were the Greater Perfection." 



The hanging gardens of Babylon were the greatest expression of the 

 pride of man in the domain of gardenage ever known, one of the wonders 

 of the world truly ; the Garden of Eden was the truest expression of pure 

 beneficence to the world in a material sense. Its Planter had no idea of 

 making a first or an eighth wonder of the world, or of making anything 

 classifiable in the category of the pride of pomp and display ; but its 

 wonders and secrets of pleasure, I believe, were, as are all lasting delights, 

 not seen at once, but revealed after diligent searching, to Love. The 

 ages at least have grown to " Civility and Elegancy " in part fulfilment of 

 Lord Bacon's prophecy, but the majority are more captivated by the sight 

 of an Eiffel Tower or an Earl's Court big wheel, and there are abundant 

 evidences of lavish display in palaces and gardens — the Babylonian ideal 

 I call it — but that planted garden of unalloyed pleasure — " the greater 

 perfection " — is almost as remote as ever, and will ever be, it seems to me, 

 only sought by the few who cherish Eden as their ideal, and are content 

 to suppress the ever insistent vain-glorious self. 



Between the Egyptian and Babylonian is inserted the JucUean phase 

 of civilization. The Jewish nation reached its zenith of splendour under 

 the rule of Solomon, who was endowed with the genius of a true poet, 

 and who, as most poets are, was a past master in many arts ; for he 

 combined along with poesy the rare qualifications of architect, botanist 

 and landscape-gardener, excelling also in natural history. For " he wrote 

 of trees, from the Cedar which groweth on Lebanon to the hyssop which 

 Springeth out of the wall." His songs or poems, which are a formidable 

 collection for even a laureate, numbering 1005, included his incomparable 

 masterpiece, the rapturous canticles, the scenic background being all 

 located, more or less, in Palestine gardens of dreamlike profusion and 

 beauty. 



" I made me great works ; I builded me houses ; I planted me vine- 



