Such are the scanty particulars which can be collected respecting the gardens of ancient Greece. If we may be allowed to hazard a conjecture on the subject, we would say that the country of Greece, being by nature more picturesque, its climate more temperate than the Asia tic regions, and its inhabitants comparatively active and frugal, paradises of the most luxurious description would not find a place. Kitchen gardens, and ornamental orchards, would no doubt he general ; but had any very extensive gardens or parks been possessed even by the princes, it is highly probable we should have had some traditionary hints respecting them, through their own, or the early Roman authors. That their poets and philosophers had a just taste for the beauties of natural scenery, is sufficiently evident, from Homer's description of the grotto of Calypso, (Racernazionen zur Gartenkunst der Alten, bei Her von Bcettinger,t7c. 1800,) and from various descriptive passages in Hesiod, £lian, Theocritus, Athcneus, and other writers. It may just be remarked, however, that their descriptions enlarge chiefly on the shade, coolness, freshness, breezes, fragrance, and repose of such scenes. The picturesque is a species of beauty, which it is not clear that either the Greeks or Romans recognised so distinctly as the modern Europeans.
The first mention of a garden in the Roman hititory, is that of Tarquinius Superbus, by Livy and Dionysius Hall carnassus. From what they state, it can only be gathered, i that it was adjoihing to the palace, and abounded in flowers, chiefly poppies. The next in the order of time are those of Lucullus, situated near Baix, in the bay of Naples. They were of a magnificence and expence rivalling that of the eastern monarchs, and procured to this general the epithet of the Roman Xcrxes. They consisted of vast edi fices projecting into the sea ; of immense artificial eleva tions; of plains formed where mountains formerly stood ; and of vast pieces of water dignified with the pompous titles of Nilus and Euripides. (Plutarch, in vita Luculli ; Sallust, &c.) Lucullus had made several expeditions to the eastern parts of Asia, and it is probable he had there contracted a taste for this sort of magnificence, which Varro after wards ridiculed for its,sumptuosity. Lucullus had the merit, however, of introducing the cherry, the peach, and the apricot, from the east ; a benefit which still remains to mankind.
We know little of the gardens of the Augustine age of Virgil and Horace, generally thought to be that in which taste and elegance were eminently conspicuous. Virgil and Propertius mention the culture of the pine tree, as be loved by Pan, the tutelar deity of gardens ; that the shade of the plane, from the thickness of its foliage, was particu larly agreeable, and well adapted for convivial meetings.
The myrtle and the bay, they describe as in high esteem for their odour ; and to such a degree of nicety had they arrived in this particular, that these odours were discover ed to mingle well together, and the trees were planted ad joining each other fur this purpose. Flowers, and espe cially roses and the narcissus, were in great repute.
From Cicero and the elder Pliny we learn, that trees were generally planted in rows, or in quincunx ; and from these authors and Martial, that the fashion of clipping trees was first introduced by Cneius Matius, a friend of Augustus. Propertius relates, that statues and fountains now became in vogue. A mode of forcing flowers and fruits, and of growing cucumbers in the winter season, was also in use by means of talc cases, (Speluncaria) or plates of the lapis specularia ; which Seneca and Pliny inform us could be split like slate in lengths not exceeding five feet.
Sir Joseph Banks conjectures, that, by the same means, it is highly probable they had peach-houses and vineries. (On the forcing houses of the Romans, in Hort. Trans. vol. I.) Daises Barrington seems to be of the same opi nion, which he considers more probable from the circum stance, that the luxury of cooling liquors with ice was in use about the same time ; these two arts being coeval in ventions in England.
Of the form and extent of Pliny's winter garden at Lau rentinum, nothing very accurate can be obtained from his letters. It was evidently small, being surrounded by hedges of box, and where that had perished, made good by rose mary. Vines, figs, and mulberries, were the fruit trees. He seems to have valued this retreat chiefly. from its situa tion relatively to the surrounding country, which he de scribes with delight ; " pointing out all the beauties of the woods, the rich meadows covered with cattle, the bay of Ostia, the scattered villas upon its shore, and the blue mountains in the distance." (Preface to Girardin's Essay on Landscape, translated by D. Malthus, Esq.) Eustace mentions that the same general appearance of woods and meadows exist to this day. Classical Tour, vol. i. p. 14.
The situation of Pliny's Tuscan villa was a natural am phitheatre, formed by the richest part of the Appenines, whose lofty summits, crowned with groves of oak, are broken into a variety of shapes, their sides watered by numerous springs, and diversified by fields, vineyards and copses. Of the artificial part of the grounds, we have ve a particular and well known description in Piiny's Epistles, book v. letter 6th, which is of importance to our purpose, as chewing what was esteemed good taste in the pleasure pounds of a highly accomplished Roman nobleman and philosopher.