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, ajoûtant tous les jours quelque nouvelles beautez à cellés qu'ils avoint receuës de leur premier maitre. We are reminded in a magic page of our own immortal poet, of those of Julius Cæsar, and of ----_his_ walks, His private arbours, and new-planted orchards, when the noble Antony invokes the Romans to ----kiss dead Cæsar'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. Martial and Juvenal ridicule the clipped box trees, cut dragons, and similar grotesque fancies, at some of their villas, both admiring the nobler grace with which nature adorned each spot.[25] The Romans were perhaps the first who introduced that art into Britain, meagerly as they did introduce it. The earliest account I can find of an English writer on Gardening, is, Alfred, an _Englishman_, surnamed the Philosopher, much respected at Rome. He died 1270, and left four books on the Meteors of Aristotle; also one on _Vegetables_, and five on the Consolations of Boethius. We are not _very_ likely to discover _his_ portrait. Nor that of the following:-- HENRY DANIEL, a Dominican friar, said to be well skilled in the natural philosophy and physic of his time, left a manuscript inscribed _Aaron Danielis_. He therein treats De re Herbaria, de Arboribus, _Fructibus_, &c. He flourished about the year 1379.--N. B. I have copied this article from Dr. Pulteney's Sketches, vol. 1, page 23.[26] I believe there are no Portraits engraved, nor perhaps yet discovered, of the following sixty-nine persons; at least I know of none:--