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, and his son Al-Mamoun, the generous protectors of Arabian literature, and which son (about the year 813) has been justly termed the Augustus of Bagdad. "Study, books, and men of letters, (I am quoting the eloquent pages of De Sismondi On the Literature of the Arabians,) almost entirely engrossed his attention. Hundreds of camels might be seen entering Bagdad loaded with nothing but manuscripts and papers. Masters, instructors, translators, and commentators, formed the court of Al-Mamoun, which appeared rather to be a learned academy than the centre of government in a warlike empire."
The gardens of Epicurus, and of Pisistratus, Cimon, and Theophrastus, were the most famous of any in the Grecian empire. Those of Herculaneum may be seen in the 2nd vol. of the paintings found there. The luxurious gardens of the affluent Seneca, and the delight with which Cicero speaks of his paternal seat, (which enraptured his friend Atticus with its beauty,) and the romantic ones of Adrian, at Tivoli, and of Lucullus, of Sallust, of the rich and powerful Crassus, and of Pompey, shew the delight which the old Romans took in them. One may gather this also from Livy; and Virgil's energy of language warmly paints the
——flowering pride
Of meads and streams that through the valleys glide.
A country cottage near a crystal flood,
A winding valley, and a lofty wood.
Leisure and calm in groves, and cooling vales;
Grottoes and babbling brooks, and darksome dales.
Messaline (says a translation of Tacitus) avoit une passion extreme pour les jardins de Lucullus, qu'il embellisoit superbement, ajoûtant tous les jours quelque nouvelles beautez à cellés qu'ils avoint receuës de leur premier maitre.
We are reminded in a magic page of our own immortal poet, of those of Julius Cæsar, and of
——his walks,
His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,
when the noble Antony invokes the Romans to
——kiss dead Cæsar's wounds,
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood.