d his son Al-Mamoun, the generous protectors of
Arabian literature, and which son (about the year 813) has been justly
termed the _Augustus_ of Bagdad. "Study, books, and men of letters, (I
am quoting the eloquent pages of De Sismondi _On the Literature of the
Arabians_,) almost entirely engrossed his attention. Hundreds of camels
might be seen entering Bagdad loaded with nothing but manuscripts and
papers. Masters, instructors, translators, and commentators, formed the
court of Al-Mamoun, which appeared rather to be a learned academy than
the centre of government in a warlike empire."

The gardens of Epicurus, and of Pisistratus, Cimon, and Theophrastus,
were the most famous of any in the Grecian empire. Those of Herculaneum
may be seen in the 2nd vol. of the paintings found there. The luxurious
gardens of the affluent Seneca, and the delight with which Cicero speaks
of his paternal seat, (which enraptured his friend Atticus with its
beauty,) and the romantic ones of Adrian, at Tivoli, and of Lucullus, of
Sallust, of the rich and powerful Crassus, and of Pompey, shew the
delight which the old Romans took in them. One may gather this also from
Livy; and Virgil's energy of language warmly paints the

----flowering pride
Of meads and streams that through the valleys glide.
A country cottage near a crystal flood,
A winding valley, and a lofty wood.

* * * * *

Leisure and calm in groves, and cooling vales;
Grottoes and babbling brooks, and darksome dales.

Messaline (says a translation of Tacitus) avoit une passion extreme pour
les jardins de Lucullus, qu'il embellisoit superbement, ajoutant tous
les jours quelque nouvelles beautez a celles qu'ils avoint receues de
leur premier maitre.

We are reminded in a magic page of our own immortal poet, of those of
Julius Caesar, and of

----_his_ walks,
His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,

when the noble Antony invokes the Romans to

----kiss dead Caesar's wounds,
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood.

Horace's incomparable lines on the happiness and delight of a country
life, his country granges, his woods, his garden, and his grove; and
many of the other Roman writers, abundantly shew their attachment to
gardens, as accompaniments to their splendid villas. There was scarcely
a romantic valley that was not crowded with their villas.

Ma