Of the Origin and Progress of Gardening in the earliest Ages of Antiquity, or from the remotest Traditions, to the Foundation of the Roman Empire
3. Gardens are of the most remote antiquity. Our first parents were placed in the Garden of Eden, or Paradise, as we read in the Holy Scriptures; and the writings of the oldest profane historians and poets contain various traditions relative to gardens, which they represent as places of extraordinary beauty and delight. As, however, these traditions, like all rude histories, touch chiefly on particulars calculated to excite wonder or surprise in ignorant or rude minds, the earliest notices of gardens contained in them are confined to fabulous creations of fancy, or the alleged productions of princes and warriors. To the first may be referred the gardens of the Hesperides, and of Alcinous; and to the others the gardens of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Jews, Persians, and Greeks.
