The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1897-10-21
SOME FAMOUS GARDENS.

SEoes "a bc4uty anu hecre3tlOn FROM the
Earliest Ages.
In Babylon, a crowded city built
Ion fiat plain, the queens had their
Igardens III the air, hanging or roof
ga1Vens, whence they could look
far away to the distant sky line.
Here rich and rare blossoms grew
and lovely foliage gave shade, and
a cooler air refreshed the brow than
that of the heated streets far below.
The rich also had high, terraced
gardens on land, and, sweetest of
(all, floating gardens on the lakes.
These were made on RATS, and in
lfke rich soil and abundant moisture
e flowers bloomed marvelously,
while in the waters another garden,
counterpart of the first, bloomed
ia a fair shadow world. In such a
Drtlen as This one might have the
Alignment of movement gliding
bwly over the waves or rest at
will moored to the bank.
Another fairylike garden was the
desert garden in which the royal Ia
dies of Persia and of Egypt delight
ed. Surrounded by burning sands,
they yet contrived, by artificial
means, to extend the waters of some
spring in an oasis and rear beauti-
full shrubs and profusion of flow
ers and tender grass, sprinkling the
air continually with fountains that
laughed and played in the sun.
Think of the delight of entering
such a retreat after a toilsome jour
ney on camel's back in the hot glare
and across the parched sands of
some desert route. In the great
tanks were cultivated aquatic plants,
the lotus, OF water lily, of the Egyp-
tan river, with coiling stems and
cool, vcined leaves.
The Romans and the Greeks de-
lighted In gardens, and those of
Pompeii, the city destroyed SO many
centuries ago by q volcano, were
very gay. The houses were in per-
feet accord with the gardens and
opened upon them. The halls al
most seemed in imitation of a flow
er bed, SO brilliant were the mosaic
pictures on the floors. 1t is true, the
walls of the houses within were
black, but this was only as back
ground to throw into stronger relief
the bright colored decorations upon
them.
There were white tablets with
inscriptions, and there were pic
lures that told some pleasing story
pictures Of bright and cheerful
colors in which the red cinnabar
predominated. The Pompeiians low
ed red; they sometimes painted the
lower part of the columns in their
graceful peristyles or porticoes a
bright red, leaving the upper part
untouched. You looked through the
rortico across hall and parlor and
perhaps picture room, all open and
CHEEKY, into the little garden be-
You'd with its trim flower beds, it's
little fountain, its vases on pedes-
tails and statues in the shrubbery.
Illusions and fanciful devices were
in great request. The garden walls
were tinted and painted in perspec-
tive, trees, temples, ETC., to produce
an appearance of more space than
really existed. Bronze boys with
silver eyes and nymphs scattering
wreaths were favorite ornaments.
Everything looked ready for a feast.
In Italy, during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries and even
later, the greatest attention was be-
slowed on gardens. These were full
of fountains and little lakes and
winding walks and borders of flow.
e1s, of course, but their special fea
ture was the resemblance to the ole
! gardens of Rome. Their boundaries
were marked by marble pillars with
a sculptured head of Hermes; under
the stately stone pines were little
temples built in classic style; beside
the streams were grottos with stat
ues of water nymphs and deities; in
the groves you came suddenly upon
a white marble Pan with his pipes
or Apollo and Diana with their
bows. philadelphia Times.
Tho nuka,a Rival