P a r t I.
H ISTÜ H Ï UJi --------
,- Castea. Vales of,he Aneionls,
P lim /s EpisUes, book v. le C om o .
Palazzo Giovio, mi the doscribos liis gaJ-dcn li'“ ® Y - j j^^sidcs other
left them, togethei wi m u p p a ’s Observations, &c. p. U S .) ^ o ro a palace
r r « I w T e n i^ o ^ '^M r ia n , near « “ ^ X o f f i l e d a c S d e r a h l e variety
e v id e n c e s o f exooUont m a s o n ry , t a t a f fo rd “ ^ ’' ^ Ì r l y l l t o Z T am id s t M l
w m m s m m
m m m m m m .
m m m m m s .
Besides the imperial apartments, and the habitations of the officers and guards, there were
apartments provided for men of science, and evciy thing necessaiy for study and msfruction
as well as for amusement.” {Wood’s Letter.s, vol. ii. p. 54.) Adrian died a . T). 138.
58. The palaces and gardens ofth e imperial brothers Caracalla and Geta, according to
Herodian, covered the greater p ait of what was once the city of Rome. In other words,
these tyrants succeeded in confiscating the greater part of the villas of the opiüent_ and
luxm-ious Roman citizens, and appropriating them to their own use. Geta is said to
liave had his palace in the Gctan gardens in the Janiculum, and Caracalla in Üiose which
had belonged to Mæcenas on the Esquilinc Hill : the two palaces, Gibbon says, though
at the distance of several miles, were connected by means of the gardens, whicb had once
belonged to Sallust, Lucullus, Agrippa, Domitian, and a number of others. Geta died
A. D> 212, and Caracalla, a . D . 217. .
59. Rome was invaded by the Goths under Alaric a . t>. 408. “ The city at this
time contained 1780 residences of wealthy and honourable citizens {Nardiiii, Roma
Antica, p. 89, &c.), and the precincts of each palace contained not only aviaries, porticoes,
and baths, but groves, fountains, hippodromes, temples, and even markets. {Rutil.
Clavdian. Numatian Itinerar., v. iii.) A moderate palace would have covered the whole
four-acre farm of Cinciiiuatus. ( Val. Max., lib. iv. cap. 4.) So little space was left_ for
the houses of the plebeians, that they were built many stories high, and each was inhabited
by a number of frmilies, more than equal to the stories it contained. Wealth, and
consequently landed property, gradually acciunulatcd in the hands of the comparatively
few noble fiimilies. The estates of the same order stretched over a large space in Italy,
as well as in distant provinces. Eaustinius, a Roman, as Gale {Antoninus, Itinerary in
Britain) conjectures, possessed an estate near the modem Bury, in Suffolk, and a second
one iu the vicinity of Naples.” {Johnson’s History o f English Gardening, 8vo. 1829,
p. 27.) The Goths and Vandals successively plundered Rome from the time of Alai-ic
till A. ». 455, and Italy was soon afterwards parcelled out into a munber of petty
states. . , .
60. That the style o f Pliny’s villa gave the tone to the European taste lu garclenmg up
to the end of the 17th century, is sufficiently obvious. I t is almost supei-fluous to remark,
observes the author of the Historical View, the striking resemblance which Pliny’s
gardens bear to the French and Dutch taste. The terraces adjoining to the house ; the
lawn declining thence ; the little flower-garden, with the fountain in the centre ; the
walks bordered with box, and the trees sheaved into whimsical artificial fornis ; together
with the fountains, alcoves, and summer-houses, fonn a resemblance too striking to beai-
dispute. “ In an age,” obseiwes Horace Walpole, “ when ai-chitecture displayed all its
grandeiu-, all its purity, aud all its taste ; when arose Vespasian’s amphitheatre, the
temple of Peace, Ti-ajan’s fomm, Domitian’s batli, and Adrian’s villa, the ruins and
vestiges of which still excite our astonishment and curiosity ; a Roman consul, a polished
emperor’s friend, aud a man of elegant literature and taste, delighted in what the mob
now scarcely admire in a college-garden. All tlic ingredients of Pliny’s garden correspond
exactly with those laid out by London and Wise on Dutch principles ; so that
nothing is wanting but a paa-tciTC to make a garden in tlie reign of TVajau serve for tlie
description of one in the reign of lOng William I I I .” — The open country round a villa
was managed, as the Roman agricultiu-al w-iters infonn us, in the common field system
lately prevalent in Britain ; there were few or no hedges, or other fences, or rows of trees ;
but what was not under forest was in waste, ivitli patches of fallow or corn. Thus it
appears that the country residence of an ancient Roman, not only as to his garden, as
Horace Walpole has observed, but even as to the views and prospects from his house, as
Eustace, and the translator of Girardiii hint, bore a veiy near resemblance to the chateau
of a French or German nobleman in the 18th Century, and to not a few in France and
Italy at the present day. The same taste, as that displajæd by Pliny, appears to have
prevailed till the fall of the Roman empire ; and by existing in a faint degree in the
gardens of religious houses during the dark ages, as well as in Pliny’s writings, has thus
been handed down to modem times.
61. The progress o f gardening among the Romans was much less than that of architecture.
Professor Hii-schfcld remarks {Théorie des Jardins, tom. i. p. 25.), that the descriptions
o fth e ancient Roman authors make us better acquainted with their country-houses than
with their gardens, as the former appear more readily submitted to certain mlcs than tlic
latter ; the gardens being thus left partly to the imagination, wc arc apt to bestow on them
the reputation which really belongs to the counti-y-houses ; and to give the one a valu,',
which properly belongs to the other. The different manner in which the ancients speak
of country-houses, and of gardens, may lead us to judge which of the two objects had
attained the highest degree of perfection. The descriptions of the first arc not only more
numerous, but more detailed. Gardens are only mentioned in a general manner ; and
the writer rests satisfied with bestowing approbation on their fertility and charms. Every
country-house had its gardens in the days of Pliny ; and it is not too much, taking this
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