Such we have found, (sect. 1.) to be the general arrange ment of eastern gardens ; and as there seems no more ob vious way of attaining the wants of those to whom they belonged, we may pronounce it to be perfectly reasonable and natural.
As to the more extensive paradises or parks in which wild beasts were admitted, and even whole regiments ex ercised, we have but few authentic particulars respecting them. Those of the east must be regarded as royal ex travagancies, calculated to excite astonishment and admi ration at their magnitude, and the art and expense emplo) cd in their construction; and if any reliance is to be placed in the account given by ancient authors of the hanging gar dens of Babylon, their design will be found singularly to unite this objet t with the minor beauties of the confined garden ; to combine the splendour of magnificence with the delights of the justest feeling of nature. I hey were situated over, or according to some, adjoining to king Ne huchadm zzar's palace, or on a platform raised by lofty pil lars, on the banks of the Euphrates, in the middle of the city ul Babylon. They are said to have contained groves, fountains, and in short, every object which we have men tioned. as appertaining to the more ordinary description of eastern gardens. Their object was to gratify his Medean queen, by that sort of verdant scenery and distant prospect, to a hich 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 Eu phrates Ind the city, as well as the gardens within and with out its walls, which she pat ticularly 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 we cannot help fancying, that so much enjoyment in so sin gular and elevated a situation, would produce in the mind an impression of sublimity. But a faint idea of these gar dens will be excited, by imagining the quadrangle of So merset House etowned with a portion of Kensington gar dens ; or of the summer garden of Petersburgh placed over the Kremlin in Moscow.
How and with what propriety the eastern style came af terwards to be adopted in Greece, Italy, France, and finally in England, is our next inquiry. The principle or instinct of imitation, would be the first cause why the more dis tant nations, whether colonies from the east, or returning travelleis or conquerors, adopted this parent style. This is so obvious, as to require no comment beyond what will be furnished by individual inquiry 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 wank, vary in application, proportionally 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 landscapes, shade, breezes, rills, water falls, and lakes, with their accompaniments of odours, mur murs, singing birds, reflections of objects, were more li berally distributed over the face of general nature. The
more active character of man, in such countries, would in time also appropriate to their use from this natural abun dance, a greater variety of fruits and legumes.
We know little of the private gardening of the Greeks, but a very slight attention to this difference of circumstan ces, will enable us to account for the character assumed by the eastern style under the ancient Romans. The ne cessarily different culture required for perfecting fruits and culinary vegetables would give rise to the orchard and kitchen garden. This would simplify the objects of the ornamental garden. which would thus exhibit less a col lection of natural beauties, than the display of art, the con venience of taking exercise, here a pleasure rather than a fatigue, and the gratifications of shade, cool breezes, and aromatic odours. A prospect of the surrounding country was desired, because it was beautiful ; and where, from va rious 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 recrea tions, and would be indulged in also by the wealth and pride of the owner, for obvious reasons. Abridgement of labour 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 clipt 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 absurdity. A more extended and absolute appropriation of territory, than what we may suppose to have taken place in the comparatively sterile country of the east, would lead to agricultural pursuits, and these again would give rise to the various arrangements of a Roman country resi dence, 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 shew, that the gardening of the Romans 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 therefore in the justest taste. To have imitated the scenery of nature, or studied pictu resque beauty in a garden, would have been merely add ing 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 or art, convenience and magnificence, which mark out his dwelling place, and gratify his pride and taste by their con trast with surrounding nature.