THE
ELDER

The elder Pliny perished in the eruption of Vesuvius, a martyr to scientific PLINY curiosity. Cuvier says of his 'Natural History': “Pliny's great work is at the same time one of the most precious monuments left us by antiquity, and a proof of the astonishing learning of a warrior and a statesman.” Whewell writes: His work has, with great propriety, been called the A.D. 23-79). Encyclopedia of Antiquity."

IN

N all the twelve tables throughout which containe our ancient lawes of Rome, there is no mention made so much as once of a Grange or Ferme-house, but evermore a Garden is taken in that signification, and under the name of Hortus (i.e. Garden) is comprised Hæredium, that is to say, an Heritage or Domaine; and hereupon grew by consequence, a certain religious or ridiculous superstition rather, of some, whom we see ceremoniously to sacre and bless their garden and hortyard dores onely, for to preserve them against the witchcraft and sorcerie of spightfull and envious persons. And therefore they use to set up in gardens, ridiculous and foolish images of Satyres, Antiques, and such like, as good keepers and remedies against envie and witchcraft; howsoever Plautus assigneth the custodie of gardens to the protection of the goddesse Venus. And even in these our daies, under the name of Gardens and Hortyards, there goe many daintie places of pleasure within the very citie; and under the colour also and title of them men are possessed of faire closes and pleasant fields, yea, and of proper houses with a good circuit of ground lying to them, like pretie fermes and graunges in the countrey: all which, they tearme by the name of Gardens. The invention to have gardens within a citie came up first by Epicurus, the Doctor and master of all voluptuous idlenes, who devised such gardens of pleasance in Athens: for before his time, the manner was not in my citie, to dwell (as it were) in the countrey, and so to make citie and countrey all one, but all their gardens were in the villages without. Certes at Rome, a good garden and no more was thought a poor man's chievance; it went (I say) for land and living. The Garden was the poore commoner's shambles, it was all the market-place he had for to provide himselfe of victuals. . . .

Certaine it is, that in old time, there was no market-place at

(Caius Plinius Secundus,

...

Rome yeelded greater impost unto the State than the Hearberie. Cato highly commendeth the garden Coules or Cabbages, whereby we may know, that in his daies Gardens were in some respect. . . . And hereupon it came, that Salads of hearbs were called Acedaria, so little care and trouble went to the provision and making of them. . . . That quarter of the Garden which serveth an house with poignant hearbs instead of sauce, to give a commendable tast and seasoning to our meat, sheweth plainly that the master and mistresse thereof were not woont to run in the Merchants bookes for Spicerie, but chaunged the Grocer or Apothecaries shop, for the Garden.... And as for the other quarters set out with beds of floures and sweet smelling hearbs, what reckoning was made of them in old time may appeare by this, That a man could not heretofore come by a commoner's house within the citie, but he should see the windowes beautified with greene quishins (cushions), wrought and tapissed with floures of all colours; resembling daily to their view the Gardens indeed which were in outvillages, as being in the very heart of the citie, they might think themselves in the country. Let us give therfore to Gardens their due honor; and let us not (I say) deprive things of their credit and authoritie, because they are common and nothing costly: for I may tell you, some of our nobilitie, yea, and the best of the citie, have not disdained to take their surnames from thence . . . in the noble house and lineage of the Valerii, some were not abashed nor ashamed to be called Lactucini in regard of the best kind of Lectuce that they either had in their gardens or affected most. And here I cannot chuse but mention by the way, the grace that hath growne to our name by occasion of some diligence employed and paines taken this way; whereby certain cherries beare our name and are called Pliniana, in testimonie of our affection and love to that fruit.Plinie's Naturall Historie,' Book XIX., chap. iv. Translates by Philemon Holland, Doctor in Physicke (1551-1636).

"Acetaria "

was the title

1 i.e. a sinecure: from a, not, and koos, care. chosen by John Evelyn for his 'Discourse on Sallets.'

MY

(A.D. 62-116).

Y villa1 is so advantageously situated, that it commands a PLINY full view of all the country round; yet you approach it by THE YOUNGER so insensible a rise that you find yourself upon an eminence, with--Nephew of out perceiving you ascended. Behind, but at a great distance, the elder Pliny stand the Apennine Mountains. In the calmest days we are refreshed by the winds that blow from thence, but so spent, as it were, by the long tract of land they travel over, that they are entirely divested of all their strength and violence before they reach us. The exposition of the principal front of the house is full south, and seems to invite the afternoon sun in summer (but somewhat earlier in winter) into a spacious and well-proportioned portico, consisting of several members, particularly a porch built in the ancient manner. In the front of the portico is a sort of terrace, embellished with various figures and bounded with a box-hedge, from whence you descend by an easy slope, adorned with the representation of divers animals in box, answering alternately to each other, into a lawn overspread with the soft-I had almost said the liquid-Acanthus : 2 this is surrounded by a walk enclosed with tonsile evergreens, shaped into a variety of forms. Beyond it is the Gestatio, laid out in the form of a circus,* ornamented in the middle with box cut in numberless different figures, together with a plantation of shrubs, prevented by the shears from shooting up too high; the whole is fenced in by a wall covered by box, rising by different ranges to the top. the outside of the wall lies a meadow that owes as many beauties to nature, as all I have been describing within does to art; at the end of which are several other meadows and fields interspersed with thickets. At the extremity of this portico stands a

1 Pliny's favourite villa in Tuscany, known as the Tusculan, about 150 miles from Rome; his Laurentine Villa is also described in his letters. Both have been the subject of learned disquisition and restoration by Scamozzi, Félibien, Schinkel and R. Castell in 'Villas of the Ancients.'

2 Sir William Temple supposes the 'Acanthus' of the ancients to be what we call 'Pericanthe'; Mr Castell imagines it resembles moss.

3 Gestatio, a place for exercises in vehicles: the Row.'

+ Circus, set apart for public games.

grand dining-room, which opens upon one end of the terrace: as from the windows there is a very extensive prospect over the meadows up into the country, from whence you also have a view of the terrace and such parts of the house which project forward, together with the woods enclosing the adjacent hippodrome. Opposite almost to the centre of the portico stands a square edifice, which encompasses a small area, shaded by four planetrees, in the midst of which a fountain rises, from whence the water, running over the edges of a marble basin, gently refreshes the surrounding plane-trees and the verdure underneath them. . . . In the front of these agreeable buildings lies a very spacious hippodrome, entirely open in the middle, by which means the eye, upon your first entrance, takes in its whole extent at one glance. It is encompassed on every side with plane-trees covered with ivy, so that while their heads flourish with their own foliage, their bodies enjoy a borrowed verdure; and thus the ivy. twining round the trunk and branches, spreads from tree to tree and connects them together..

Between each plane-tree are planted box-trees, and behind these, bay-trees, which blend their shade with that of the planes. This plantation, forming a straight boundary on both sides of the hippodrome, bends at the farther end into a semicircle, which being set round and sheltered with cypress-trees, varies the prospect, and casts a deeper gloom; while the inward circula walks (for there are several), enjoying an open exposure, are perfumed with roses, and correct, by a very pleasing contrast the coolness of the shade with the warmth of the sun. Having passed through these several winding alleys, you enter a straight walk, which breaks out into a variety of others, divided by box hedges. In one place you have a little meadow, in another th box is cut into a thousand different forms: 2 sometimes int letters expressing the name of the master; sometimes that o the artificer; whilst here and there little obelisks rise, intermixed 1 Xystus, terrace (properly a large portico for athletic exercises).

2 Matius is said to have introduced the fashion of 'shaping' trees, the ars topiaria.

alternately with fruit-trees: when, on a sudden, in the midst of this elegant regularity, you are surprised with an imitation of the negligent beauties of rural nature: in the centre of which lies a spot surrounded with a knot of dwarf plane-trees.1·

Beyond these is a walk planted with the smooth and twining Acanthus, where the trees are also cut into a variety of names and shapes. At the upper end is an alcove of white marble, shaded by vines, supported by four small Carystian pillars. From this bench, the water, gushing through several little pipes, as if it were pressed out by the weight of the persons who repose themselves upon it, falls into a stone cistern underneath, from whence it is received into a fine polished marble basin, so artfully contrived that it is always full without ever overflowing.

. When I sup here, this basin serves for a table, the larger sort of dishes being placed round the margin, while the smaller ones swim about in the form of little vessels and water-fowl. Corresponding to this, is a fountain which is incessantly emptying and filling; for the water, which it throws up a great height, falling back into it, is by means of two openings, returned as fast as it is received. Fronting the alcove (reflecting as great an ornament to it, as it borrows from it) stands a summer-house of exquisite marble, the doors whereof project and open into a green enclosure; as from its upper and lower windows the eye is presented with a variety of different verdures. Next to this is a little private recess (which, though it seems distinct, may be laid into the same room) furnished with a couch; and notwithstanding it has windows on every side, yet it enjoys a very agreeable gloominess, by means of a spreading vine which climbs to the top and entirely overshades it. Here you may recline and fancy yourself in a wood; with this difference only-that you are not exposed to the weather. In this place a fountain also rises and instantly disappears; in different quarters are disposed marble seats, which serve, no less than the summer-house, as so many reliefs after one is wearied with walking. Near each seat is a little fountain; and, throughout the whole hippodrome, several 1 The plane-tree was nourished on wine by the Romans.

B