Pleasure garden

[1] The two meanings of the term, as the ornamental parts of a garden, and as a commercial place of entertainment, coexisted in English from at least the 17th century.

Containing many pavilions, a temple to Venus, and monumental sculptures, the gardens were open to the public for centuries.

A paradeisos was a playground for the Persian nobility, combining parklands, orchards and hunting grounds.

They would likely have been used for hosting and entertaining Roman-born officials and merchants, as well as the native, Romanized British upper classes.

English nobles were increasingly able to build undefended, hospitable homes equipped with pleasure gardens displaying exotic fauna introduced from the Americas and Indies.

Other cities, in England and abroad, acquired their own, such as Holte Bridgman's Apollo Gardens in Birmingham (1740s) and Leeds Royal Park in 1858.

An 18th-century print showing the exterior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh Gardens and part of the grounds
Paderborn Castle, Germany, in 1736, with its jardins de plaisance , as well as the kitchen gardens ("E") at right.
The Grand Walk, Vauxhall Gardens by Canaletto , 1751.