f we should begin to expatiate on 
the subject of gardens, it would be 
difficult to stop ; for, as Sir Thomas 
Browne has said, “ Gardens were 
before gardeners, and but a few 
hours after the earth ; ” and from 
the earliest days descriptions, in 
prose and verse, of gardens real or imaginary, have 
come down to us. We shall confine ourselves, then, 
( 203 ) 
