“The first gardens were not made, but discovered. A natural spot – a clearing in the forest, a valley opening up in a barren mountainside, an island in a remote lake – made pleasant by a belt of trees, flowering, fragrant, and bearing fruit. The hum of bees mingles with the tinkling fall of water, for a stream winds across the tranquil scene. In the centre there is a grassy space, and the grass is rich with flowers.”
Christopher Thacker: The History of Gardens, p. 9.
