Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1913-02-18
OLD WORLD GARDENS
DEFINED BY DR.. HANLIN
God Made the Country Man the
Town But it Took God and
Man to Make the Garden
PUREST OF HUMAN PLEASURE
Second Of Series of Lectures al St.
John's College Delights Large
Audience.


f. Not a vacant seat in Mcdowell
Hall. st. Johns College, was to be
found last night when Prof. A. F. D.
Hamlin, Of Columbia University, N.
r., began his lecture, the second in
the course Of University Extension
at the college.
One side of the auditorium was
| filed with the college cadet battal-
ion, and a representative audience
filed the opposite side. The lecture
was delightfully."- entertaining, inter
esting and instructive. 1t was IL
lustrated throughout with lantern
slides of beautiful gardens of Italy,
France, Germany and England Pro-
lessor Hamlin was introduced by
President Fell, who spoke of the COM
pliment conferred upon St Johns to
have him come here.
Provost Fell also spoke of the ST.
JOHNS men now attending Columbia
University, notably Henry Hopkins,
who Is making good, and is a son of
Mr.. Harry j. Hopkins, of this city,
and Cadet Brashears. nephew of
| Judge Brashears, and a last years
graduate of st. Johns.
Or. Hamlin, in turn, refe rred to
the honor conveyed upon him by ST.
Johns in inviting him here, and by
the local college comforting upon him
a degree at the last commencement.
The subject of the lecture was "Old
World Gardens" and it was highly
| interesting from start to finish Fer
nearly two hours Professor Hamlin,
a fluent speaker. who uses the choic-
est English, the best vocabulary
which he he's at his tongues end,
held the large AMI cultured audi
ence in wrspt attention. and at it's
close he received a volume If ap-
plause that did not subside for some
few minutes.
Professor Hamlin introduced sew
eral humorous remarks, up-to-date,
that excited much laughter. He spoke
of the Garden of Eden existing be-
fore there were either 6Tessmakers or
architects, and 10 some of his illus-
tratious remarked of the female figure
in the hobble skirt, only six inches
wide at the bottom, probably account
ing for the fact that these stone
| images had remained stationary for
centuries in the old gardens.
He defined garden as portion of
| the earth's surface humanized. The
| forces of naeure are called upon to
| finish and adorn the handiwork of
man. Without gardening" says
Bacon. buildings and palaces are
| but gross handiworks, and men shall
| ever see that when the ages grow to
civility aad elegancy man comes to
build stately soc ner than to garden
finery." This has been the histCry of
gardening in our own country, in
which architecture has, during the
last forty years, developed in advance
Of gardening, which has take on
greater Importance among US only
during the last fifteen or twenty
| years The forces of nature must be
subdued before they can be engaged
in the gentler service of human pleas
ure.
Gardening Jared but I'll IN the Mid
die Ages except among the Moslems.
Modern gardening is the creation Of
the Renaissance, which revived the
ancient Roman prototypes, of which
abundant ruins exist throughout Italy,
and which are described by classical
authors. The Villa Barberini at
Castel-Gandolfo, and the Villa Pia,
in the Vatican Gardens at Rome, con-
form closely to the ancient Roman
type. These sacient gardens were
extremely formal. The ancients had
but little of the modern sentiment of
love for nature for its own sake.
Nature was priced for what it could
contribute towards rural ease and
luxury The same is true of the Re-
naissance gardeners of Italy.
Their gardens were designed as
decorative settings for the palaces OIL
villas and as pleasure grounds t0 de-
light the eye, and for shade, rest anc
soothing environment. Their art wa:
an aristocratic one, an art for princes
and popes, which attained its great
est Importance when the Papal Couri
at Rome reached its elimination Of
sple ndor in the Sixteenth Century
Most of the Roman gardens were
created for the Cardinals and Ecclesi
astical Princes. When the decline o
the temporal power of the Papac.
came. consequent upon the PrOtestan
reformation. the building of villa
and gardens ceased. and many of III
greatest fell into decay.
The essential features of the Ital
ian gardens are easily stated. The
are, first, the rete rracing of slopinl
sites, offering varied prospects fror
/ successive levels; secondly, the al
/ chitectural treatment of special point
and features; thirdly, the use Q
running water in fountains and ca.
/ cades; fourthly, the formal arrangs
ment of flower bed, hedges and ave
mes so as to provide vistas closed b
| decorative structures, or by especial
beautiful prospects. These Italia
| gardens rarely employed the va.
| levels and long vistas of the FrenC
gardens, or the huge jets and massiN
| basins which distinguish the toul
| tains at Versailles.