ime and solemn thoughts, which this
admirable divine has transfused into many of his Sermons on the Seasons,
make one doubly feel the truth and propriety with which he has so
liberally reviewed Mr. Whately's _Observations on Modern Gardening_.

[Illustration]

ON
THE PORTRAITS
OF
English Authors on Gardening.

ON THE PORTRAITS OF ENGLISH AUTHORS ON GARDENING.

The earliest accounts we have of gardens, are those recorded in Holy
Writ; their antiquity, therefore, appears coeval with that of time
itself. The Garden in Eden had every tree good for food, or pleasant to
the sight. Noah planted a Vineyard. Solomon, in the true spirit of
horticultural zeal, says, _I planted me Vineyards, I made me Gardens and
Orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit_. We have
all heard of the grandeur of Nebuchadnezzar's Gardens.

Whether that of Alcinous was fabulous or not, it gave rise to Homer's
lofty strains:--

The balmy spirit of the western gale
Eternal breathes on flowers untaught to fail;
The same mild season gives the blooms to blow,
The buds to harden, and the fruit to grow.[23]

That Homer was all alive to the rich scenery of nature, is evident, even
from his Calypso's Cave:--

All o'er the cavern'd rock a sprouting vine
Laid forth ripe clusters. Hence four limpid founts
Nigh to each other ran, in rills distinct,
Huddling along with many a playful maze.
Around them the soft meads profusely bloom'd
Fresh violets and balms.[24]

The Egyptians, the Persians, and other remote nations, prided themselves
on their magnificent gardens. Diodorus Siculus mentions one "enriched
with palm trees, and vines, and every kind of delicious fruit, by
flowery lawns and planes, and cypresses of stupendous magnitude, with
thickets of myrtle, and laurel, and bay." He paints too the attachment
which some of the ancients had to landscape scenery:--

None of art's works, but prodigally strown
By nature, with her negligence divine.

The splendid gardens at Damascus, were superintended by a native of
Malaga, who "traversed the burning sands of Africa, for the purpose of
describing such vegetables as could support the fervid heat of that
climate." The cities of Samarcand, Balckd, Ispahan, and Bagdad, were
enveloped and surrounded by luxurious and splendid gardens. No wonder
when those countries were partly governed by such celebrated men as
Haroun-al-Raschid, an