The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-05
SOME FAMOUS GARDENS.
Spots OF Beauty and Recreation From
the Earliest Ages.

From the Philadelphia Times.
In Babylon, a crowded city built on a
fiat plain, the queens had their gardens
in the air, hanging, or roof gardens,
whence they could look far away to the
distant sky line Here rich and rare blos-
SONS 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 gar
dens, and, sweetest of ALL floating gardens
on the lakes. These were made on RATS,
and In the rich soil and abundant moist
ure the flowers bloomed marvelously,
while in the waters another garden-coun-
terpart of the hrst-boomed in fair
shadow world. In such a garden as this
one might have the enjoyment of move
ment. gliding slowly over the waves, or
rest at will, moored to the bank
Another fairy-like garden was the desert
garden in which the royal ladies Of Per-
sia and of Egypt delighted. Surrounded
by burning sands, they yet contrived, by
artificial means, to extend the waters of
| some spring in an oasis, and rear beau
tiful shrIbs and a profuslon of flowers
tinually with fountains that laughed and
played in the sun. Think of the delight
of entering such q retreat after a toll
some journey on cameis buck In the hat
glare and across the parched sands of
some desert route. In the great tanks
were cultivated aquatic plants, the lotus
or water lily OF tEa Egyptian river. with
coiling stems and cool Veined leaves
The Romans and the Greeks delighted
in gardens and those of Pompeil, the city
| destroyed SO many centuries ago by a
volcano, were very gay. The houses were
in perfect accord with the gardens, and
opened upon them. The halls almost
seemed in imitation of flower bed so
| brilliant were the mosaic pictures on the
| floors. Ut is true the walls of the houses
within We're black, but this was only as a
background to throw into stronger relief
| the bright-colored decorations upon them.
There were white tablets with nscrIp-
tons, and there were pictures that told
some pleasing stOry-picures of bright and
| cheerful colors in which the red CHINA bar
| predominated The Pompeilan loved red
| they sometimes painted the lower part OF
the columns in their graceful peristyles or
! porticos a bright red, leaving the upper
part untouched. You looked through the
! portico across hall and parlor and per-
| y
into the little garden beyond with Its trim
! flower beds, its little fountain, its vases
on pedestals and statues I'm the shrubbery.
| Illusions and fanciful devices were in
| great request. The garden walls were
| tinted and painted in perspective trees,
temples, etc, TO produce an appearance of
more space than really existed. Bronze
! boys with silver eyes and nymphs scat
| tering wreaths were favorite ornaments.
Everything looked ready for a feast
In Italy during the fourteenth and fift-
teenth centuries, and even later, the great
est attention was bestowed on gardens.
| These were full of fountains and little
| lakes and winding walks and borders of
| flowers, of course, but their special fea-
ture was the resemblance to the old gar
dens of Rome. Their boundaries were
marked by marble pillars with a sculp-
| tured head of Hermes; under the stately
stone pines were little temples built in
classic style, beside the streams were grot-
/ tos with statues of water nymphs end
deities, in the groves you came suddenly
upon a white marble Pan with his pipes
or Apollo and Diana with their bows.