pleasure groundn.

1755 T. Hitt Treat. Fruit-trees ii. 5 It will be proper of the first mentioned drains, whether they are pleasure grounds, kitchen gardens, or orchards.

1768 E. Holdsworth Remarks & Diss. Virgil 200 The Romans seem..to have used the word Tempe, as the Greeks did Παράδεισοι..for any very pleasing place; or pleasure-grounds, as our gardeners of late call them.

1796 Duke of Rutland Jrnl. 18 Oct. in Tour N. Parts Great Brit. (1813) 255 The pleasure grounds are ornamented by a fine piece of water, on which Mr. Smith and I rowed Miss Hamilton.

1836 W. Dunlap Mem. Water Drinker (1837) I. 6 Such of the busy citizens as, in crossing this triangular pleasure-ground, find leisure to think of nature.

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xii. 242 A beautiful pleasure-ground, situated on a woody promontory which overlooks Lough Erne.

1886 W. J. Tucker Life E. Europe 101 Isn't it grand—a park of this size? It's fully fifty acres, and all pleasure-ground, too!

1911 J. Muir My First Summer in Sierra 274 Compared with it the most carefully leveled, licked, snipped artificial lawns of pleasure-grounds are coarse things.

1975 Irish Times 10 May 17/6 (advt.) Ultra modern bungalow on ½ acre... Pleasure ground in front, garden at side.

1992 Newsletter (National Trust, Thames & Chilterns Region) Autumn 5/1 The restoration of the 18th century pleasure grounds at Osterly Park with characteristic lawns, serpentine gravel paths and beds of evergreen shrubs, trees and herbaceous plants has begun.