Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

which he called "Alcibiades." Semiramis was passionately devoted to the forming of gardens'; Pharnabazus, as Xenophon tells us, lamented the destruction of his paradise, more than the loss of all his property; Attilus was charmed with. one, his own taste3 had formed; and the disciples of Epicurus were styled "Philosophers of the Garden" from that, which Epicurus had planted at Athens. Seneca is said to have incurred the hatred of Nero, more from having magnificent gardens, than from any other cause: Cimon embellished the groves of Academus with trees, walks, and fountains; and Cicero enumerates a garden as one of the more suitable employments for old age.

The great Prince de Conde, after devoting much of his life to military operations, being confined in the Tower of Vincennes, with the Prince of Conti, and the Duke de Longueville, by the intrigues of Cardinal Mazarine, amused many of his hours of imprisonment in cultivating flowers in pots. Linnæus, who caught the first impression of love for natural science in his father's garden, studied in his bower; and Buffon in the summer-house, which Prince Henry of Prussia called the cradle of natural history. This naturalist, who embellished Nature with a glowing style, seldom went out of his domain; and, for years, his longest tours were from his house to his bower,

1 Diod. Siculus, lib. ii. c. 13.

2 The paradises of the Persians resembled modern parks. The first park, formed in England, was that of Woodstock: though Spelman seems to think, they were in existence during the time of the Anglo-Saxons.

3 Justin, lib. xxxvi. c. 4.

4 Cic. ad Attic. lib. ii. ep 24.-Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 122.-Pliny, lib. xix. c. 4.

and from his bower to his summer-house. Leibnitz, too, was accustomed to meditate in his garden at Herrenhausen, near Hanover. This philosopher has made many men learned; as Spenser has made many men poetical.

[ocr errors]

IV..

Timûr built a magnificent palace in the midst of the Bághi-Dilensha', (the garden which rejoiceth the heart) just then finished in the plain of Khani-Gheul, and gave to both the name of one of his mistresses. Asufad-Dowlah, nabob of Oude, had twenty palaces; and a thousand gardens ; in one of which was a landscape by Claude Lorrain. Kerim Khan, king of Persia, rendered his gardens at Shiraz the most beautiful of all the East; and Gassendi, who ingrafted the doctrine of Galileo, on the theory of Epicurus, took not greater pleasure in feasting his youthful imagination by gazing on the moon, than Cyrus, in the cultivation of flowers. "I have measured, dug, and planted the large garden, which I have at the gate of Babylon," said that prince; "and never, when my health permit, do I dine, until I have laboured in it two hours. If there is nothing to be done, I labour in my orchard." Cyrus is also said to have planted all the lesser Asia. Lysander being sent to Sardis with rich presents 2, Cyrus, charmed at the presence of so illustrious a guest, took him into his garden, which was disposed in so tasteful a manner, that the Grecian general was delighted with it. "Every thing I see," said Lysander, "transports me: but I am not so

1 Mod. Univ. Hist. v. 297.

2 Xenophon. Econ. Cic. de Senect. 59.

much delighted with the shrubs, that meet my eye, as with the skill, with which the garden is disposed; for there is an order and a symmetry, which I have no words to express my admiration of." Cyrus, who was flattered with these compliments, confessed that it was himself, who had drawn the plan; and that he had even planted many of the trees and flowers with his own hand. "What!" exclaimed the astonished guest," is it possible, that your majesty, so magnificently clothed with strings of jewels, and bracelets of gold, could employ yourself in planting of flowers and trees?" "I swear by the god Mythras!" interrupted Cyrus, "that I never devote myself to the pleasures of the table, till I have induced a profuse perspiration by military exercise, or rural employments; and when I apply to those engagements, I never stoop to spare myself." "Ah!" said Lysander, presuming to take Cyrus by the hand," you alone are truly happy, and deserve your station."

Phraortes, one of the kings of India, lived almost entirely on the produce of his garden: "I only drink," said he to Apollonius of Tyana," as much wine as what I use in my libations to the sun. The game, I kill in hunting, is all eaten by my friends; and the exercise I get in the chase is found sufficient for myself. My chief food consists of vegetables, and the pith and fruit of the palmtree; together with the produce of a well-watered garden. Besides, I have many dishes from such trees, as I cultivate with my own hands."

A love of flowers distinguished Sultan Mahomet the Fourth. It is related1 of this monarch, that, having an

'Tournefort's Voyage in the Levant, vol. 2. p. 15.

ardent passion for the chase, his vizier, Cara Mustapha, desirous of diverting him from so dangerous an amusement, exercised his ingenuity in encouraging the natural taste of his royal master for flowers; particularly the ranunculus. With this view, he wrote to the different pachas of the Turkish empire, desiring them to send to Constantinople seeds and roots of the most beautiful, they could procure. In consequence of this order, a vast number of ranunculi were remitted from Cyprus, Candia, Rhodes, Aleppo, and Smyrna, to adorn the areas of the Seraglio. These species were, soon after, dispersed over the royal gardens of Europe, by the respective ambassadors at the Turkish court.

Charles the Twelfth cultivated flowers with his own hands; and Cyprian lived in a garden of a small village in the neighbourhood of Carthage. There he was lost, as it were, in contemplation, when the Valerian persecution began. St. Augustine was equally attached to the beauties of Nature. "One day," says he, in his Confessions," as I was looking out of my window, I fell into a discourse with my mother, respecting the nature of eternal felicity; and drawing inferences from the flowers and shrubs before us, I proceeded to a consideration of the sun and stars; and thence meditating on the glory of the celestial regions, we became so ravished with our contemplations, that for some time we forgot, that we were inhabitants of earth."

Martyr Vermilius erected a library in his garden at Zurich: the illustrious Malesherbes passed his days of retirement in serenity, says his biographer, dividing his time between his family, his books, and the cultivation of

amusement.

his garden. Ariosto was a great lover of a parterre, though he was totally ignorant of botany; and Petrarch was never happier than when indulging in the same "I have made myself two," says he, in one. of his epistles; "I do not imagine they are to be equalled in all the world: I should feel myself inclined to be angry: with fortune, if there were any so beautiful out of Italy." Wieland, the celebrated German poet, delighted in his garden at Osmannstadt; and, enjoying it with his sacra familia, formed a beautiful picture. Fontaine, too, was charmed with a similar kind of life. Duchess de Bouillon, niece to Cardinal Mazarine, saw him, as she was going to Versailles, sitting in an arbour, so entirely abstracted, that he scarcely perceived her. As she returned from the palace in the evening, Fontaine still occupied his seat, though it had been raining the chief part of the day.

One morning the

V.

And here we will trace the history of a few of our most celebrated flowers; drawing materials, principally, from Beckman's History of Inventions. Simon de Tovar introduced the tuberose from Ceylon and Japan, where they grow in the fields. The chequered lily came from Hungary, in the sixteenth century. The belladonna lily. was first introduced to Spain from South America. The auricula was brought from the mountains of Switzerland. The crown-imperial and the Persian lily emigrated from Persia to Constantinople, about the year 1563, whence it was carried to Vienna; then to Versailles; and thence it

« ПредишнаНапред »