Gardens for pleasure and comfort of the owners: Pliny and the Renaissance Garden

He writes : `My house is for use not show. . . . The garden is chiefly planted with fig and mulberry trees to which this soil is particularly favour-able. Here is a dining-room which, though it is at a distance from the sea, commands a prospect which is no less pleasant. Behind this room are two apartments, the windows of which look out on the entrance to the house and to a well-stocked kitchen garden. You then enter a sort of cloister which you might suppose built for public use. It has a range of windows on each side; in fine weather we open all of them; if it blows we shut those on the exposed side and are perfectly sheltered. In front of this colonnade is a terrace, fragrant with the scent of violets, and warmed by the reflection of the sun from the portico. We find this a very pleasant place in winter and still more in summer, for then it throws a shade on the terrace during the forenoon, while in the afternoon we can walk under its shade in the place of exercise or in the adjoining part of the garden.' All that bit of coast was prettily studded with detached villas or rows of villas which made it seem like a string of townships. The gardens were not extensive or elaborate and obviously had one purpose only ... to add to the pleasure and comfort of the owners. A far fuller picture of a much more imposing place is given in his letter describing the Tuscan villa: `The air in winter is sharp and frosty, so that myrtles and olives and trees which need warmth will not grow there. The laurel thrives and is remarkably beautiful though now and then it is killed by the cold not, however, oftener than at Rome. The summers are very temperate and there is always a refreshing breeze, seldom high winds... The character of the country is very beautiful. Picture to yourself an immense amphitheatre such as only nature could create. Before you lies a broad plain, bounded by a range of mountains whose summits are covered with tall and ancient woods which are stocked with all kinds of game for hunting. The lower slopes of the mountains are planted with underwood among which are a number of little hillocks with a rich soil on which hardly a stone is to be found ... below on the mountainside is a continuous stretch of vineyards ending in a belt of shrubs. Then you have meadows and the open plain... You would be charmed by taking a view of the country from one of the neighbouring mountains. You would fancy that you were looking on the imaginary landscape of a first-class artist; such a harmonious variety of beautiful objects meets the eye wherever it turns.