176 
R usi ic A dorn meats . 
So far indeed from the gardens of the ancients being composed only of 
“ potherbs and sepulchral cypress,” the legends that remain of Semiramis and 
Adonis, Alcinous and Laertes ; and the historical instances of the gardens of 
the academies, the villas, and gardens of Cicero, Pliny, Sallust, and 
Maecenas; and the splendid grounds of Lucullus on the Pincian Hill, over¬ 
looking the field of Mars and the Flaminian Way, sufficiently attest that a 
taste for horticultural embellishments is by no means of modern origin—nay, 
did not the Romans, cooped up two millions strong in a space of less than 
fourteen thousand yards circumference, revenge themselves on the city by 
placing the country above it; that is, did they not build indestructible roofs 
of larch, and beech, and pumice stones, in order to lay down mould for the 
growth of fruit trees, myrtles, laurels, arbutuses, oleanders, and roses? So 
they not only had their gardens on the house tops, but frequently miniature 
forests there also, in which wild birds found nesting quarters, and tame birds 
in cages were hung about to attract the savage songsters by their madrigals. 
Indeed, Horace makes it a special subject of complaint, that in his time 
the ornamental gardens were fast usurping the place of the old olive and 
apple grounds, and that the demands of luxuriance were fast destroying the 
profitable groves and orchards ; proof enough that a cabbage or bulb of garlic 
was not the ne plus ultra of a Roman garden. 
“ Jam pauca aratro jugera regise 
Moles relinquent ; undique latius 
Extenta visentur Lucrino 
Stagna lacu ; platanusque coelebs 
Evincet ulmos : turn violaria, et 
Myrtus, et omnis copia narium, 
Spargent olivetis odorem, 
Fertilibus domino priori.” 
Lib. II., Ode 15. 
Though these roof gardens might be worthy of revival at the present day, 
in London and other great towns, it concerns us most here to get back 
quickly to the garden proper, and renew the thread thus broken, in an 
attempt to set forth something like a code of taste in gardening. 
Such is an outline of the ancient style of laying out gardens, and one which 
more or less found favour in modern times, until within a comparatively 
recent period. But happily taste has changed considerably of late years, the 
erstwhile formal walks, geometrical beds, massive statuary and squirting foun¬ 
tains, being gradually replaced by a more natural style, one showing less of 
