Remembering the close connection between Egypt and the Holy Land, and that Solomon's chief wife was Pharaoh's daughter, it is more than probable that the gardens Solomon made for his pleasure closely resembled those for which Egypt had been famed for centuries, for mal gardens with stately avenues, groves of pomegranates and scented shrubs, vine pergolas and water-gardens. From the Bible we know that Solomon's gardens were scented gardens, and the Song of Songs which is Solomon's,' the lyric of the scented garden, is full of the honeyed sweetness and aromatic fragrance of ?owers and shrubs. It is noteworthy that Solomon, like Bacon, comments on the exquisite scent of newly opened vine blossoms, one of the most delicious of all scents.1.
