Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-11-18

lhe Work Of mnlrons these the princes pIesl, +.
Day following day, long continued feast.
Refulgent pedestas the walls surround,
Which boys Of gold with flaming torches crowned
The polished ore, rejecting every ray,
Blazed on the banque,s with double day.
Such is the fairy spendor and wealth which the imagna
ton of the poet calls up around Acnous in the decorations
interior and exterior Of his palace luxury and art which
Egypt and far Assyriathen known, to their barbarc
pomp, to Homer only by reporcan only have approached
He describes the personnel ou readers pardon
the French word has English equvaent Of the pa
lace and this the bard-orgeng that he presently to
send the Princess wash her cothes-makes equally
grand
Full fifty landmarks form the household train
Some turn the mill, or slf the golden grain;
Some ply the loom their busy fingers none
Like popLnr leares ,chen zephyr strs the grore.
But pass the rest, arrive the wonders of garden
such as may then have existed in the famous hanging hor
tculture of Babylon, but probably nowhere else:
Close to the gates a spacious garden lies,
From storms defended and Indictment skies:
-Four tn allotted space Of ground,
Fenced with green enclosure all around.
Tall thriving confess the fruitful mould
The ud'nng apple rpens here 10 gold;
Here the blue fig with luscious juice o'erfows;
With deeper red the full pomegranate gows;
The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear,
And verdant olives flourish all the year.
The balmy spirit Of the western gale
Eternal breathes ON fruits untaught 10 fail;
Each dropping pear following pear supplies,
On apples apples figs on figs arise
The mild season gives the blooms TO blow,
The buds to harden, and the fruits TO grow.
Here ordered vines in equal ranks appear,
With all tn united abors Of the year
Some TO unload the fertile branches run;
Some dry The black'ning clusters in the sun
Others TO tread the liquid harvest join
The grooming presses foam with floods Of wine
Here the vines in early flower deserted, }
Here grapes dscolored on the sunny side,
And there in autumn's richest purple dyed.
Beds Of all various herbs, forever green,
In beauteous order terminate the
Two peneous fountains The whole prospect crowned D
This through the gardens leads its its around,
Visits each plant, and waters all the ground; )
While that in pipes beneath the palace flows,
And thence its current on the town bestows;
To various their various streams they bring,
And one supplies the People, tho King.
Here, now is in distinct description, the whole art OF the
French garden Of Louis the Foureen;hs time, and Of its
gns the Italian system Of the day Of afso dukes Of Fer
Nothing is wanting but mensgere Of bears and IL
gers elephants and cameeoparIs in clipped yew zoology
done in holly, with the tails Of the animals to the life in ivy
scuptud heroes and saints las the Black Prince and Saint
George in the evergreen Of tonse cypress
with unfnshedtower Of Babel in arch great poets green
bays and laurel little seedy lovers knots in boz grave
lord chanceors in FIR If not in ermne, and an Elizabeth
other maden queen with her vgniy somewhat oveshot IN
prve These strue probable inventions reserved FOR
modern and which the genius Of Homer did not reach but
nearly every thing else in artificial gardening be has-a that
could delight the eye, smell taste walks and shades and
fruits and fountains che spcndors Of architecture beds Of
perpetual PLANTS and beyond or the vineyard must be sup
posed part Of the garden proper the four sce vines
hanging with grapes and presses that Ow perennial Wines
incessan vntsge Of Cyprus Chan and every other juice
that by-snd-by to make Anacreon's song divine
Versailles and Marty, the utmost that lie NOe could do
larger Fcae there except that vegetable sculpture, the
verdan monsters that have already mentioned and
tain other equally preposerous statuesfostbi looking
nymphs, shveng Venuss, and Cupds that II they
mus, catch the eroupsuch figure along alleys p the
waters in Popes lively description Of the wonders Of thai
horticulture which he brought 10 be exploded:
Lo, what huge heaps Of littleness around
The whole abored quarry above ground:
Two Cupids squirt before; lake behind 4
Improves the kcenness OF the northern wind
The gardens next your admiration call
On all sides where you look, behold the wall
No pleasing inlricaces intervene,
No artful wildncss, to perplex the scene
Grove mods at grove, each alley has his brother,
And half the partcrre just reflects the other.
The suffering eye inverted Nature Sees
Trees cut to statues, statues thick as trees,
With here fountain 10 be PLAYED,
And there a summcrh house that knows shade
Here Amphtri,e sails through myrtle bowers;
There eadisors fight or die in flowers;
Unwatered see the Dropping sea-horse mourn,
And swallows rocst in Nlus' empty urn.
So much for the origin and degsnorscy Of merely decora
tive and artificial distinguished from initiative or landscape
gardening. Il was, have shown, a poet and no,
gardener who from the dull orchard first fsd TO the we'll
nuayed alley bordeied and lowered with vaegaeJ fruit
trees from the struggling patch to the elegant pscre,
was Of course poet alone who taught how the ditch
That crept along each might sparkle up oun
ain and showed how poherbs might mix with A,wes The
s in Short may be- that form Of which We
treating, historically defined 10 be thing which poet
a,ed and which the gardeners spoiled But this is all
bat propose prove shall proceed to show that
i to the conception Of the poets that owe the rise Of
Landscape Gardening, less than Of her elder sisters the
homey but nice rural culture that gives with vegetables
prs and fruits spot Of beauty the farm and the coser
art that d,coates with Sed and wealth the grounds
Of the palace the villa And here again we must turn
back 10 Homer the great original Of al the arts Of the ina
gination.
Is in the enchanted soitudes amidst which the poets
81. ly.i.- n IT,.