It is almost a matter of surprise that history affords so few examples of a style of gardening truly representative of natural landscape. In England, at the close of the eighteenth century, garden compositions first assumed a character of freedom which was called the Natural Style. The noted gardens of the ancients prove to have been formal orchards and plantations of the most artificial kind. The famous hanging gardens of Babylon were simply elevated terraces of evergreens enriched with formal architectural constructions. The Roman style was distinguished by similar regularity and restraint. External nature was excluded by a square enclosure containing terraces canals, fountains, balustrades, and monuments in strictly geometrical arrangement. Even the trees and shrubs were planted in rows and squares, and their foliage cut into formal and unnatural shapes. Elegant symmetry and methodical order were the chief characteristics of this style. The romances of the middle ages have lent to the gardens of that period a charm which is, however, chiefly one of enchanting words "Fair Rosamond's Bower" was a square hedged enclosure of regularly planted trees the labyrinth of mediï¾µval verse was a thick plantation or shrubbery crossed by narrow tortuous paths.
