violettis the better, if they sowe oynyons and garlyke nere by them, that what so ever sower savour be in them, it may be purged into the tother: so an enmye receyvynge in to him our envie and waywardnes, shal make us better and lesse grevous to our frendis that have good fortune.-' Howe one may take profette of his Enmyes.' (De capienda ex inimicis utilitate.) Sir Thomas Elyot (d. 1546). -www Columella, native of Gades (Cadiz), wrote a voluminous and valuable work on COLUMELLA Roman Agriculture, in twelve books, of which the tenth is a poem on the vegetable (1st Cent. A.D.). and flower garden, meant as a supplement to the Georgics of Virgil. Columella makes use of the work of his predecessors, Cato the Censor, Varro, Celsus and Atticus, Gracinus, and Mago the Carthaginian. He is quoted by Pliny the Elder, Vegetius, and Palladius, the work of the latter superseding Columella's. The writings of these three with Varro are generally found together as 'Scriptores de Re Rustica.' (English translation by Owen, 1803). THERE remains, therefore, the culture of gardens, notably neglected formerly by ancient Husbandmen, but now in very great request. Though it is true, indeed, that, among the ancients there was greater parsimony and frugality, nevertheless the poor were wont to fare better, and to be frequently admitted to public feasts. . . . Wherefore we must be more careful and diligent than our ancestors were in delivering precepts and directions for the cultivation of gardens, because the fruit of them is now more in use; and I would have subjoined them in prose to the preceding books, as I had resolved, unless your frequent and earnest demand had overcome my purpose, and prevailed with me to fill up, with poetical numbers, those parts of the Georgic poem, which were omitted, and which even Virgil himself intimated, that he left to be treated of by those that should come after him.-' Of the Culture of Gardens' (Preface). MOREOVER, Nero turned the ruins of his country to his TACITUS private advantage, and built a house, the ornaments of (A.D. 61-117). which were not miracles of gems and gold, now usual in vulgar luxuries, but lawns and lakes, and after the manner of a desert; here groves, and there open spaces and prospects; the masters and centurions being Severus and Celer, whose genius and boldness could attempt by art what Nature had denied, and deceive with princely force.1-Annals, lib. XV. www (d. A.D. 65). SENECA LIVE they not against nature that in winter long for a Rose, and by the nourishment of warme waters, and the fit change of heat in winter time, cause a lily, a spring flower, to bloom? Live not they against nature that plant orchards on their highest towers, that have whole forests shaking upon the tops and turrets of their houses, spreading their roots in such places where it should suffice them that the tops of their branches should touch. Epistle 122. (Lodge's translation and L'Estrange.) A shrub, although it be old, may be translated into another place. This is necessarie for us to learne, who bee old men, of whom there is none but planteth an Orchard of Olives for another man. That which I have seene, this I speak; namely, that an Orchard of three or foure years old will, with a plentifull fall of the leafe, yeeld forth fruit; yea, also that tree will cover thee: which Hath been slow to make a shade before To yong nephewes and those that were unbore: As our Virgil saith, (who beheld not what might be spoken most truly, but most seemely; neither desired he to teach husbandmen, but to delight those that read.-Epistle 86: Of the Country House of Africanus. (T. Lodge.) Why now, Gardens and houses of pleasure? he had divers, and differently bewtified. Juvenall toucheth it, 'The Gardens of most wealthy Seneca.' Hee himselfe likewise maketh mention of his houses: Nomentanum, Albanum and Baianum, and without question hee had manie.- Life of L. A. Seneca,' by Justus Lipsius. 1 The striking similarity of this description to that of a modern park is too obvious to escape notice.—(Loudon.) BUT UT is the garden that is for use to avail of no ornament ? QUINTILIAN (1st Cent. A.D.). by all manner of means let these trees be planted in a regular order, and at certain distances. Observe that quincunx, how beautiful it is; view it on every side; what can you observe more straight, or more graceful? Regularity and arrangement even improves the soil, because the juices rise more regularly to nourish what it bears. Should I observe the branches of yonder Olive Tree shooting into luxuriancy, I instantly should lop it; the effect is, it would form itself into a horizontal circle, which at once adds to its beauty and improves its bearing. Institutes of Eloquence,' Book VIII. Wm. Guthrie's translation, 1756. IN IN the Island of the Blessed they have no night nor bright day, LUCIAN but a perpetual twilight; one equal season reigns throughout (A.D. 120-200). the year it is always Spring with them, and no wind blows but Zephyrus; the whole region abounds in sweet flowers, and shrubs of every kind; their vines bear twelve times in the year, yielding fruit every month, their apples, pomegranates, and the rest of our autumnal produce, thirteen times, bearing twice in the month of Minos instead of corn, the fields bring forth loaves of ready made bread, like mushrooms; there are three hundred and sixtyfive fountains of water round the city, as many of honey, and five hundred rather smaller, of sweet scented oil, besides seven rivers of milk, and eight of wine. Their Symposia are held in a place without the city, which they call the Elysian Field; this is a most beautiful meadow, skirted by a large and thick wood, affording an agreeable shade to the guests, who repose on couches of flowers; the winds attend upon, and bring them everything necessary, except wine, which is otherwise provided, for there are large trees on every side, made of the finest glass, the fruit of which are cups of various shapes and sizes; whoever comes to the entertainment gathers one or more of these cups, which immediately becomes full of wine, and so they drink of it, whilst the nightingales, and PALLADIUS other birds of song, with their bills peck the flowers out of the neighbouring fields, and drop them on their heads; thus are they crowned with perpetual garlands; their manner of perfuming them is this; the clouds suck up the scented oils from the fountains and rivers, and the winds gently fanning them, distil it like soft dew on those who are assembled there; at supper they have music also, and singing, particularly the verses of Homer, who is himself generally at the feast, and sits next above Ulysses, with a chorus of youths and virgins: he is led in, accompanied by Eunomus the Locrian, Arion of Lesbos, Anacreon and Stesichorus, whom I saw there along with them, and who at length is reconciled to Helen: when they have finished their songs, another chorus begins of swans, swallows, and nightingales; and to these succeeds the sweet rustling of the Zephyrs, that whistle through the woods, and close the concert. What most contributes to their happiness is, that near the symposium are two fountains, the one of milk, the other of pleasure; from the first they drink at the beginning of the feast, there is nothing afterwards but joy and festivity. True History' (Dr Francklin's Translation). -www Palladius lived about time of Theodosius, wrote De Re Rustica' in fourteen books, a compilation from writers like Columella or Gargilius: Book I. contains general rules about Agriculture—the next twelve are devoted to agricultural work of each month-Book XIV. in elegiac verse, on grafting trees: much used in Middle Ages, and the 'Speculum' of Vincent de Beauvais borrows largely from it. WITH TH orchard, and with gardeyne, or with mede, The side in longe upon the south thou sprede, The cornel ryse upon the wynter sonne, And gire it from the cold West yf thou conne. 6 The Middle English translation, Palladius on Husbondrie, from the unique MS. of about 1420 A.D. in Colchester Castle. English Text Society. 1 Böttiger sees in this hyperbole a parody on the prodigies of Homer's Garden of Alcinous ( Racemazionen zur Gartenkunst der Alten'). CHAPTER II THE GARDEN IN SOME EARLY CHRISTIAN AND LATE PAGAN WRITERS IN N those days, through the vast and horrible solitude, Hilarion ST JEROME at length came to a very high mountain, having found there (A.D. 345-420). two monks, Isaac and Pelusianus, of whom Isaac had been the interpreter of Anthony. And because the occasion presents itself and we have reached that place, it appears worthy of our subject to describe in a short account the dwelling of so great a man. A rocky and high mountain presses forth its waters at its foot for about a mile, of which waters the sands absorb some, and others flowing to the lower regions make a river, over which on both banks innumerable palm trees give much both of beauty and convenience to the place. Here you might see the old man. going up and down with the disciples of the blessed Anthony. Here, they said, he (Anthony) was accustomed to sing psalms; here to pray; here to work; here, when tired, to sit down. He himself planted those vines, those shrubs. He settled this little garden-bed. He it was who made with much labour this pond for watering the little garden. He had for many years this little rake for digging the earth.-The Life of St Hilarion: his visit to the cell of St Anthony. YUAN HOMEWARDS I bend my steps. My fields, my gardens, are T'AO choked with weeds: should I not go? My soul has led a MINGbondsman's life: why should I remain to pine? But I will waste Chinese no grief upon the past: I will devote my energies to the future. Writer (A.D. 365-427). I have not wandered far astray. I feel that I am on the right track once again. |