The name of Chatham is in the long list of eminent men who have enjoyed
a garden. We are told that "he loved the country: took peculiar pleasure
in gardening; and had an extremely happy taste in laying out grounds."
What a delightful thing it must have been for that great statesman, thus
to relieve his mind from the weight of public care in the midst of quiet
bowers planted and trained by his own hand!

Burton, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, notices the attractions of a
garden as amongst the finest remedies for depression of the mind. I must
give the following extracts from his quaint but interesting pages.

"To see the pleasant fields, the crystal fountains,
And take the gentle air amongst the mountains.

"To walk amongst orchards, gardens, bowers, mounts, and arbours,
artificial wildernesses, green thickets, arches, groves, lawns,
rivulets, fountains, and such like pleasant places, (like that
Antiochian Daphne,) brooks, pools, fishponds, between wood and water, in
a fair meadow, by a river side, _ubi variae avium cantationes, florum
colores, pratorum frutices_, &c. to disport in some pleasant plain, or
park, run up a steep hill sometimes, or sit in a shady seat, must needs
be a delectable recreation. _Hortus principis et domus ad delectationem
facta, cum sylvâ, monte et piscinâ, vulgò la montagna_: the prince's
garden at Ferrara, Schottus highly magnifies, with the groves,
mountains, ponds, for a delectable prospect; he was much affected with
it; a Persian paradise, or pleasant park, could not be more delectable
in his sight. St. Bernard, in the description of his monastery, is
almost ravished with the pleasures of it. "A sick man (saith he) sits
upon a green bank, and when the dog-star parcheth the plains, and dries
up rivers, he lies in a shady bower," _Fronde sub arborea ferventia