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AN ENQUIRY 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 CHANGES 
 
 LANDSCAPE GARDENING, 
 
AN ENQUIRY 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 , CHANGES OF TASTE 
 
 IN 
 
 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED, 
 
 SOME OBSERVATIONS ^ 
 
 OS 
 
 ITS THEORY AND PRACTICE, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 A DEFENCE OF THE ART. 
 
 //. REPTON, Esq. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR J. TAYLOR^ 5Q, HIGH HOLBORN. 
 
 1800. 
 
I 
 
 1. BENSLEY, PRINTER^ 
 BOLT COUHT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The folloAving Enquiry into the 
 Changes of Taste in Landscape Gar- 
 dening has been produced in conse- 
 quence of a request from Professor 
 Martyn, that I would furnish him 
 with some matter for his elaborate edi- 
 tion of Miller's Gardener^s Dictionary, 
 in the preface to which he proposes 
 to " take up the History of Landscape 
 *' Gardening from the period when 
 " Mr. Walpole left off, and to trace it 
 " from Kent, through Brown, to the 
 " present time.'' 
 
 Having also been called on by my 
 bookseller for a new edition of my 
 " Observations on the Theory and Prac- 
 " ticc of Landscape Gardenings" I have 
 
IV 
 
 directed diat work to be reprinted with- 
 out any alteration or addition, consi- 
 dering it an act of justice to the ori- 
 ginal subscribers and purchasers of so 
 expensive a volume^, not to make the 
 second edition more perfect than the 
 first. 
 
 I have also been desired to publish 
 a new edition of my rtrst work, enti- 
 tled, " Sketches and Hints on Landscape 
 Gardening" of which only 250 copies 
 being published by Messrs. Boy dells 
 in 1794, the book is become so scarce, 
 that above four times the original price 
 has been paid for some copies. In 
 compliment to the present possessors 
 of that work, I have determined never 
 to publish another costly edition of it 
 with plates; but rather to extract from 
 it such matter as may not interfere 
 Avith the quarto volume, incorporating 
 it with such furdier observations on 
 
the Theory and Practice of the Art, as 
 have occurred from more recent prac- 
 tice; to which arc added, answers to 
 the attacks made on the art by some 
 late pubhcations. 
 
 Although I am aware of the uti- 
 lity of plates to exemplify many parts 
 of this subject, and that one stroke of 
 the pencil will often say more than a 
 page with the pen, yet the enormous 
 expencc of engraving has hitherto so 
 confined my opinions to a certain class 
 of purchasers, that tlu^y have been 
 either not generally known, or they 
 have been rc])cated by some with- 
 out acknowledgment, and misrepre- 
 sented by others without sufiicient 
 quotation. 
 
 Hare Street, near Romford, 
 1 805'. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Fashion 1 
 
 Changes in Gardening 4 
 
 Different Styles 5 
 
 Park and Garden Scenery 9 
 
 Changes in Planting 1? 
 
 Appendages to a Palace 28 
 
 Antient and Modern Styles compared 33 
 
 Conclusion 41 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Landscape Gardening 43 
 
 Situations and Characters 48 
 
 Buildings and Works of Art /O 
 
 Situations for Houses 81 
 
 Water cp 
 
 Park and Forest Scenery distinct Q/ 
 
 Approaches 103 
 
 Park Entrances 112 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Mr, Knight's " iNauiRY " 117 
 
 Difference between Painting and Gardening 122 
 
 Mr. Knight's " Landscape" 131 
 
 Mr. Price I4l 
 
 Sources of Pleasure from Landscape Gardening 1 6l 
 
 Conclusion 16/ 
 
^ . 
 
:\. 
 
 '^^ :- -i:- :?:a 
 
 ENQUIRY, &c. 
 
 a > i;. 
 
 I . ' 
 
 , . . 
 
 (• : 
 
 
 >ART 
 
 1. 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 JtvERY revolution in the Taste of a coun- Taste 
 
 , ^ , influenced 
 
 try may be accounted tor on the same by Fashion. 
 principles with the revolutions in its laws, 
 its customs, and opinions — the love of 
 cJiange or novelty in a few, and of same- 
 ness or imitation in the many. And how- 
 ever the pride of system may revolt at 
 taste being influenced and liable to change 
 with the fashions of tlie da}', it is impos- 
 sible to fix any standard for taste, that 
 may not be shaken by the prevailing opi- 
 nions of the public, whether right or 
 wrong. Thus in whatever relates to the 
 amusements and pleasures of mankind, 
 though an old fashion may be most ra- 
 tional, yet a received new fashion will be 
 deemed in the best taste. This leads me 
 
5 
 
 to consider the origin of what is called 
 Fashion, and by the multitude generally 
 considered as Taste. 
 Origin of Although each individual may have 
 
 Fashion. " p , . , . - ^ 
 
 the power or thmking, yet the mass or 
 mankind act without thought, and like 
 sheep follow a leader through the various 
 paths of life. Without this natural pro- 
 pensity for imitation, every member of 
 society would hold a diiferent opinion, 
 and the world would be at perpetual war- 
 fare. Indeed every disagreement, from 
 the enmity of nations to the petty squab- 
 bles of a parish, is caused and conducted 
 by some leader, whom the nmltitude fol- 
 low, imitate, and support. 
 
 This is the origin of changes in cus- 
 toms or fashions in every shape. Opi- 
 nions are declared by one man, and fol- 
 lowed by the many. If persons only of 
 superior sense were the leaders, or if 
 mankind always examined what they fol- 
 lowed, fashion might perhaps be more 
 reasonable: but this suppo'ses mankind 
 always to act like rational beings, which 
 is contrary to every test of experience. 
 
Therefore, whether in religion, in po^ 
 litics, in philosophy, in medicine, in lan- 
 guage, in the arts, in dress, in equipage, in 
 furniture, or in the most trifling concerns 
 of life, we see thousands move in the way 
 that some one has gone before: and if it 
 be too great a stretch of thought to mark 
 a new track, it is also too great to investi- 
 gate whether the new track marked out 
 by another be good or bad. 
 
 Changes in the fashion, or, in other Changes 
 
 . , by whom 
 
 words, m the customs or a country, be- made. 
 come a source of wealth and commerce, 
 and contribute to those daily occupations 
 which make life preferable in civilized 
 society. The clown or the savage re- 
 quires no change, no variety; and the 
 vulgar, who are one degree above them, 
 slowly adopt the changes of others, al- 
 though they insensibly slide into the fa- 
 shion. On the contrary, the nice ob- 
 server, the ' elegantice formarum specta- 
 tor'' eagerly seizes and imitates whatever 
 appears ncM'-; and perhaps without en- 
 quiring into its reasonableness or pro- 
 priety. Thus forms and fashions of one 
 
climate are often brought into another, 
 without attending to their uses or ori- 
 ginal intentions. 
 
 Fashions in dress, in furniture, &c. 
 are comparatively harmless; they soon 
 pass away, and become ridiculous, in pro- 
 portion to the distance of their dates. 
 Thus we laugh at the odd figures of our 
 ancestors on canvas, and wonder at the 
 bad taste of old worm-eaten furniture, 
 without reflecting, that in a few years our 
 own taste will become no less obsolete. 
 
 But in the more lasting works of art, 
 fashion should be guided by common 
 sense, or we may perpetuate absurdities. 
 Of this kind v/as the general rage for 
 destroying those old English buildings 
 called Gothic; and for introducing the 
 Architecture of a hot country, ill adapted 
 to a cold one; as the Grecian and Ro- 
 man portico to the north front of an Eng- 
 lish house, or the Indian *varandah as a 
 shelter from the cold east winds of this 
 climate. 
 In Fashion has had its full influence on 
 
 '* Gardening as on architecture, importing 
 
models from foreign countries. The gar- 
 dens in England have at one time imi- 
 tated those of Italy, and at another those 
 of Holland. 
 
 The Italian style of gardens consisted itaiianstyi; 
 in ballustraded terraces of masonry, mag- 
 nificent flights of steps, arcades, and ar- 
 chitectural grottos, lofty clipped hedges, 
 with niches and recesses enriched by 
 sculpture. This \yas too costly for gene- 
 ral use; and where it was adopted, as at 
 Nonsuch, and some other palaces, it was 
 discovered to be inapplicable to the cli- 
 mate of England; and no traces now re- 
 main of it, except in some pictures of 
 Italian artists.^ 
 
 To this succeeded the Dutch Garden, Dutch styic 
 introduced by KingWilliam III, and which 
 prevailed in this country for half a cen- 
 
 » Some mention of the French Style of Gardening- 
 raay here be expected ; but as tliis was only a corrup- 
 tion of the Italian style, and was never generally adopted 
 in England, it is purposely omitted; although in practicj 
 J have occasionally availed myself of its more massive 
 Trellis, Boccages, and Cabinets de Verdure, to enliven 
 the scenery of a flower garden. 
 
tury. It consisted of sloped terraces of 
 grass, regular shapes of land and water 
 formed by art, and quaintly adorned with 
 trees in pots, or planted alternatel}*, and 
 clipped, to preserve the most perfect re- 
 gularity of shape. These were the kind of 
 terraces, and not those of the grand Ita- 
 lian st^d-e, which BroM'n destroyed, by en- 
 deavouring to restore the ground to its 
 original shape. 
 English He observed that nature, distorted by 
 
 Style. *^ 
 
 great labour and expence, had lost its 
 power of pleasing with the loss of its no- 
 velty ; and that every place was now be- 
 come nearly alike. He saw that more 
 variety might be introduced by copying 
 „ nature, and by assisting her operations. 
 Under his guidance a total change in the 
 fashion of gardens took place; and as the 
 Dutch style had superseded the Italian, 
 so the English garden became the uni- 
 versal fashion. Under the great leader, 
 Brown, or rather those mIio patronized 
 his discovery, we were taught that nature 
 was to be our only model. He lived to 
 establish a fashion ii> gardening, which 
 
snight have been expected to endure as 
 long- as nature should exist. 
 
 Nature is alike the model to the poet, Nature: 
 the painter, and the gardener, who all Model. 
 profess to be her imitators: but how few 
 have genius or taste to avoid becoming 
 mannerists. Brown copied nature, his il- 
 literate followers copied him; and in such 
 hands, without intending to injure his 
 fame, or to depart from his principles, the 
 fashion of English gardening was in dan- 
 ger of becoming more tiresome, insipid, 
 and unnatural, than the worst style of 
 Italian or Dutch examples. 
 
 Mr. Brown after his death was imme- Brown's 
 diately succeeded by a numerous herd of corrupted. 
 Lis foremen and working gardeners, who, 
 from having executed his designs, became 
 consulted, as well as e7nployed, in the se- 
 veral works which he had entrusted them 
 to superintend. Among these, one person 
 had deservedly acquired great credit at 
 liarewood, at Holkham, and other places, 
 by the execution of gravel walks, the 
 planting of shrubberies, and other details 
 belonging to pleasure grounds, which were 
 
8 
 
 generally divided from the park by a sunk 
 fence, ox ha! ha! and happy would it have 
 been for the country, and the art, if he 
 had confined his talents within such boun- 
 dary. Unfortunately, without the same 
 great ideas, he fancied he might improve 
 by enlaj^ging his plans. This introduced 
 all that bad taste which has been attri- 
 buted to his great master, Brown. Hence 
 came the mistaken notion, that greatness 
 of dimensions would produce greatness of 
 Extant character: hence proceeded the immea- 
 
 mistakcn , , n i ^ ^ i 
 
 for Beauty, suraoic cxtcnt ot uakcd lawn; tiie te- 
 dious length of belts and drives; the use- 
 less breadth of meandering roads; the 
 tiresome monotony of shrubberies and 
 pleasure grounds; the naked expanse of 
 waters, unaccompanied by trees; and all 
 the unpicturesque features which dis- 
 grace modern gardening, and which have 
 brought on Brown's system the oppro- 
 brious epithets of bare and bald. Yet 
 such is the fondness for what is great by 
 measurement, that the beauty of parks is 
 estimated by the acre, and the perfection 
 of walks and drives computed by the mile, 
 
9 
 
 although we look at them without inte- 
 rest, and fly from them to farms and fields, 
 even preferring a common or a heath, to 
 the dull round of a walk or drive, without 
 ohjects, and without variety. 
 
 When by this false taste for extent, Pir^ 
 
 *' Scenery. 
 
 Parks had become enlarged beyond all 
 reasonable bounds of prudence or econo- 
 my, in the occupation : it then became ad- 
 viseable to allot large portions of land for 
 the purposes of agriculture, Avithin the belt 
 or outline of this useless and extravagant 
 inclosure; and thus great part of the in- 
 terior of a park is become an arable farm. 
 Hence arises thenecessity of contracting 
 that portion of an estate in which beauty, 
 rather than profit, is to be considered. 
 
 Much of the controversy concerning Garden 
 
 , ^ 1 • 1 • Scenery. 
 
 modern Gardening seems to have arisen 
 from the want of precision in our lan- 
 guage. Gardening is alike applied to the 
 park, the lawn, the shrubbery, and the 
 kitchen garden; and thus the scenery of 
 one is blended with that of another, vdien 
 there is as much difference between gar- 
 den scenery, park scenery, and forest 
 
10 
 
 scenery, as between horticulture, agricul- 
 ture, and uncultivated nature. The first 
 is an artificial object, and has no other 
 pretence to be natural, than what it de- 
 rives from the growth of the plants which 
 adorn it: their selection, their disposi- 
 tion, their culture, must all be the work 
 of art; and instead of that invisible line or 
 hidden fence, which separates the mown 
 turf from the lawn fed by cattle, it is 
 more rational to shcM' that the two ob- 
 jects are separated, if the fence is not 
 unsightly; otherwise we must either sup- 
 pose that cattle are admitted to crop the 
 flowers and shrubs, or that flowers and 
 shrubs are absurdly planted in a pasture 
 exposed to cattle, or, which is more fre- 
 quently the case, we must banish flowers 
 entirely from the windows of a house, 
 and suppose it to stand on a naked grass 
 field.'' 
 
 ^ Fences are not objectionable when they mark a 
 separation, and not a boundary of property. Thus a 
 park-pale marks the precise limits of the park, and a 
 hedge before a wood renders it liable to be mistaken for 
 a wood belonging to some other person, and therefore 
 acts as a boundary: but the hurdle, which makes a 
 
11 
 
 By the avenues and symmetrical plan- 
 tations of the last two centuries, the arti- 
 ficial garden was extended too far from 
 the mansion; hut in the modern garden- 
 ing, the natural lawn is hrought too near. 
 
 As there are few Palaces in England Example 
 
 from 
 
 that can vie in magnificence with that of wobum. 
 Wohurn, it may furnish an example of 
 greatness in variety and character in its 
 garden scenery, without making its di- 
 mensions the standard of its greatness. 
 The mansion is connected with its ap- 
 pendages, such as the Stables, Riding- 
 house, Tennis-court, Orangerie, Chinese- 
 pavilion, Game-larder, &c. &c. by a cor- 
 ridor or covered passage of considerable 
 leno'th, which is enriched with flowers 
 and creeping plants. This passage is pro- 
 posed to be extended to the hot-houses in 
 the forcing garden, which is to form a 
 centre, for a series of different gardens, 
 under the following heads. 
 
 temporary division of a lawn, or a light open fence that 
 divides tlie garden from the park, can only offend the 
 fastidious critic, who objects to all fences, without 
 knowing or assigning any reason. 
 
12 
 
 The terrace and parterre near the 
 house. 
 
 The private garden, only used by the 
 I family. 
 
 The rosary, or dressed flower garden, 
 in front of the green-house. 
 
 The American garden, for plants of 
 that country only. 
 
 The Chinese garden, surrounding a 
 pool in front of the great Chinese pavi- 
 lion, to be decorated with plants from 
 China. 
 
 The botanic garden for scientific clas- 
 sing of plants. 
 
 The animated garden, or menagerie. 
 
 And lastly, the English garden, or 
 shrubbery walk, connecting the whole; 
 sometimes commanding views into each 
 of these distinct objects, and sometimes 
 into the park and distant country. 
 'Hic word By a strange perversion of terms, what 
 
 misapplied, is Called Modcm, or English Gardening, 
 seldom includes the useful garden, and has 
 changed the name of the ornamental ga?'- 
 den mto pleasure ground; but it is not the 
 name only that has been changed; the 
 
15 
 
 character of a garden is now lost in that 
 of the surrounding park ; and it is only on 
 the map that they can be distinguished, 
 M'hile an invisible fence makes the se- 
 paration between the cheerful lawn fed 
 by cattle, and the melancholy lawn kept 
 by the roller and the scythe. Although 
 these lawns are actually divided by a bar- 
 rier as impassable as the ancient garden 
 wall, yet they are apparently united in 
 the same landscape, and 
 
 * . . , . wrapt all o'er in everlasting green. 
 
 Make one dull, vapid, smooth and tranquil scene.' 
 
 R. I'. KNIGHT. 
 
 The gardens or pleasure grounds near similitude 
 
 between 
 
 a house may be considered as so many dif- House and 
 
 ferent apartments belonging to its state, 
 its comfort, and its pleasure. The mag- 
 nificence of a house depends on the num- 
 ber as well as the size of its rooms; and 
 the similitude betMcen the house and the 
 garden may be justly extended to the 
 mode of decoration. A large lawn, like a 
 large room, when unfurnished, displeases 
 more than a small one. If only in part, 
 
 Gardens. 
 
14 
 
 Of meanly furnished, we shall soon leave 
 it M'ith disgust; whether it be a room co- 
 vered with the finest green baize, or a 
 lawn kept with the most exquisite ver- 
 dure, we look for carpets in one, and 
 flowers in the other. 
 
 If in its unfurnished state there chance 
 to be a looking glass without a frame, it 
 can only reflect the bare Myalls; and thus 
 a pool of water, without surrounding ob- 
 jects, reflects only the nakedness of the 
 scene. This similitude might be extended 
 to all the articles of furniture, for use or 
 ornament, required in an apartment, com- 
 paring them with the seats and buildings 
 and sculpture appropriate to a garden. 
 Its Thus the pleasure-ground at Woburn 
 
 requires to be enriched and furnished like 
 its palace, where good taste is every where 
 conspicuous. It is not by the breadth or 
 length of the walk that greatness of cha- 
 racter in garden scenery can ever be sup- 
 ported; it is rather by its diversity, and 
 the succession of interesting objects. In 
 this part of a great place we may ven- 
 ture to extract pleasure from variety^ 
 
 Application 
 
from contrast^ and even from n(welty,\\'i\.\\- 
 out endangering the character of great- 
 ness. 
 
 In the middle of the last century al- Changes 
 
 near the 
 
 most every mansion in the kingdom had House. 
 its kitchen and fruit gardens surrounded 
 by walls in the front of the house. To 
 improve the landscape from the windows 
 Brown was obliged to remove these gar- 
 dens; and not always being able to place 
 them near the house, they were sometimes 
 removed to a distance. This inconvenient 
 part of his system has been most impli- 
 citly copied by his followers; although I 
 observe that at Croome, and some other 
 places, where he found it practicable, he 
 attached the kitchen garden to the offices 
 and stables, &c. behind the mansion, sur- 
 rounding it with a shrubbery; and indeed 
 such an arrangement is the most natural 
 and commodious. 
 
 The intimate connexion between the Kitchen 
 kitchen and the garden for its produce, 
 and between the stables and the jrarden 
 for its manure, is so obvious, that every 
 
16 
 
 one must see the propriety of bringing 
 them as nearly together as possible, con- 
 sistent with the views from the house. 
 Yet we find in many large parks, that the 
 fruit and vegetables are brought from the 
 distance of a mile, or more M^ith all the 
 care and trouble of packing for much 
 longer carriage; and the park is conti- 
 nually cut up by dung carts passing from 
 the stables to the distant gardens. 
 Winter To tlicsc considcrations may be added, 
 
 that the kitchen garden, even without 
 hot-houses, is a different climate. There 
 are many days in winter, when a warm, 
 dry, but secluded walk, under the shelter 
 of a south wall, would be preferred to 
 the most beautiful but exposed landscape; 
 and in the spring, when 
 
 ' Reviving natiire seems again to breathe. 
 As loosen'd from the cold embrace of death,' 
 
 on the south border of a walled garden 
 some early flowers and vegetables may 
 cheer the sight, although every plant is 
 elsewhere pinched with the north east 
 
/ 
 
 / 
 
 17 
 
 winds peculiar to our climate in the months 
 
 of March and April, when . . i- 
 
 ' Winter^ still ling'ring on the verge of spring. 
 Retires reluctant, and from time to time 
 Looks back, while at his keen and chilling breath 
 Fair Flora sickens.' stillingfleet. 
 
 Let us now trace tlie progress of changes 
 
 1 • 1 /- 1 <^ 1 • 1 '" Planting. 
 
 change m the fashions or planting; by 
 which I mean the various systems adopted 
 at different periods for making trees ar- 
 tificial ornaments. The first was doubt- strai-ht 
 Jess that of planting them in a single row '"'^'" 
 at equal distances, which prevailed in the 
 garden mentioned by Pliny. The next 
 step was that of doubling these straight 
 rows to form shady walks, or adding 
 more rows, to make so many parallel 
 lines. But fashion, not content with 
 the simplicity of such avenues of trees 
 placed opposite to each other, invented the 
 quincunx, by which these straight lines Quincunx, 
 were multiplied in three different direc- 
 tions. As the eagerness for adopting this 
 fashion could not always wait the tedious 
 growth of trees, where old woods existed; 
 c 
 
18 
 
 Vistas. 
 
 Regular 
 Curves. 
 
 Platoons. 
 
 they were cut through in straight lines 
 and vistas, and in the forms of stars and 
 pates d'oies which prevailed at the begin- 
 ning of the last century. 
 
 Fashion, tired of the dull uniformity 
 of straight lines, was then driven to adopt 
 something new: yet still acting by geo- 
 metric rules, it was changed to regular 
 forms of circles and curves, in which the 
 trees were always planted at equal dis- 
 tances. This introduced also the serpen- 
 tine avenue for a road. 
 
 The next bold effort of fashion was 
 that of departing from the equi- distant 
 spaces; and trees M^ere planted in patches 
 or clumps (called in some old maps Pla- 
 toons) : these M^ere either square or round, 
 alternately sheM'ing and hiding the view 
 on each side of the road; and where no 
 view was required, a skreen, or double 
 row of trees, entirely shut up one side, 
 while on the other the view was occasion- 
 ally admitted, but still at regular inter- 
 vals: this prevails in the drives at Wo- 
 burn. 
 
49 
 
 1 perfectly remember, when I was about Avenues 
 ten years old, that my father (a man of 
 such general observation, that no innova- 
 tion or novelty escaped him) remarked 
 to me the change which was then taking 
 place in ornamental planting; and then, 
 although little supposing how much it 
 Mould become the future study of my hfe, 
 I recollect his observing the discovery 
 made by some ingenious planter (perhaps 
 Kent or Brown) that the straight line 
 might be preserved in appearance from 
 the ends of a vista or avenue, without ac- 
 tually filling up all the sides; and thus 
 alternate openings of views to the coun- 
 try might be obtained, without losing the 
 grandeur of the straight line, which was 
 then deemed indispensable. He also ob- 
 served, that perhaps this would lead to 
 the abolishing of avenues; and 1 believe . 
 few were planted after that date, viz. the 
 midddle of the last century. 
 
 About this time a total change in the Natural 
 
 ,. , . ,1 Xa 11 Plaiitins:. 
 
 fashion took place. It was asserted, that 
 nature must be our only model, and that 
 nature abhorred a straight line: it was 
 
m 
 
 hot therefore to be wondered at, that 
 . Brown's ilUterate followers should have 
 copied the means he used, and not the 
 model he proposed : they saw him prefer 
 curved lines to straight ones, and hence 
 proceeded those meandering, serpentine, 
 and undulating lines in all their works, 
 which were unfortunately confirmed by 
 Hogarth's recommendation of his imagi- 
 nary line of beauty. Thus we see roads 
 sweeping round, to avoid the direct line, 
 to their object, and fences fancifully tak- 
 ing a longer course, and even belts and 
 plantations in useless curves, with a drive 
 meandering in parallel lines, which are 
 full as much out of nature as a straight 
 one. Thus has fashion converted the belt 
 or skreen of plantation, introduced by 
 Brown, into a drive quite as monotonous, 
 and more tedious, than an avenue or vista, 
 because a curved line is always longer 
 than a straight one. 
 Brown's Browu's belt consisted of a wood, 
 
 through which a road might wind to va- 
 rious points of view, or scenery shewn un- 
 der various circumstances of foreground; 
 
21 
 
 but the drive was only made among tlie 
 trees, and under the shade of their 
 branches. 
 
 The last fashion of belt, which Brown The 
 
 modern 
 
 never made, is an open drive so wide, that Beit. 
 it never goes near the trees, and which 
 admits such a current of air, that the 
 front trees are generally the worst in the 
 plantation: add to this, that two narrow 
 slips of planting will neither grow so well, 
 nor be such effectual harbours for game, 
 as deeper masses, espe,cially when the 
 game are liable to be disturbed by a drive 
 betwixt them. The belt may be useful as 
 a skreen, but unless very deep, it should 
 never be used as a drive, at least till af- 
 ter the trees have acquired their growth, 
 when a drive may be cut through the 
 wood to advantage. 
 
 It is not only the line of the modern variety 
 belt and drive that is objectionable, but by its 
 
 excess. 
 
 also the manner in which the plantations 
 are made, by the indiscriminate mixture 
 of every kind of tree. In this system of 
 planting all variety is destroyed, by the 
 excess of variety, whether it is adopted 
 
22 
 
 ill belts or clumps, as they have been tecli- 
 nically called ; for example, if ten clumps 
 be composed often different sorts of trees 
 ill each, they become so many things ex- 
 actly similar; but if each clump consist 
 of the same sort of trees, they become 
 ten diflerent things, of which one may 
 hereafter furnish a group of oaks, another 
 of elms, another of chesnuts or of thorns, 
 &c. In like manner, in the modern belt, 
 the recurrence and monotony of the same 
 mixture of trees of all the different kinds 
 through a long drive makes it the more 
 tedious, in proportion as it is long. 
 vvoburn I must uot hcrc omit the full tribute 
 
 Evergreen r> ^ i <» i i • i. 
 
 Unve. of applause to that part or the drive at 
 Woburn, in which evergreens alone pre- 
 vail: it is a circumstance of grandeur, of 
 variety, of novelty; and, I may add, of 
 winter comfort, that 1 never saw adopted 
 in any other place om so magnificent a 
 scale. The contrast of passing from a 
 wood of deciduous trees to a wood of 
 evergreens, must be felt by the most 
 heedless observer; and the same sort of 
 pleasure, though in a weaker degree, 
 
^^o 
 
 would be felt iin the course of a drive, if 
 the trees of different kinds were collected 
 in small groups, or masses by themselves, 
 instead of being- blended indiscriminately, 
 
 I do not mean to make separate groves Variety, 
 or woods of different trees, although that produced. 
 has its beauty, but in the course of the 
 drive to let oaks prevail in some places, 
 beech in others, birch in a third; and in 
 some parts to encourage such masses of 
 thorns, hazle, and maple, holleys, or other 
 brush-wood of low growth, as might best 
 imitate the thickets of a forest/ 
 
 '' It is difficult to lay down rules for any system of 
 planting, which may ultimately be useful to this purpose 5 
 time, neglect, and accident, will often produce unex- 
 pected beauties. The gardener or nurseryman makes 
 his holes at equal distance, and generally in straight 
 rows; he tlien fills the holes with plants, and care- 
 fully avoids putting two of the same sort near each 
 other; nor is it very easy to make him ever put two or 
 more trees into the same hole, or within a yard of 
 each other : he considers them as cabbages or turnips, 
 which will rob each other's growth, unless placed at 
 equal distances; although in forests we most admire 
 those double trees or thick clusters, whose stems seem 
 to rise from the same root, entangled with the roots of 
 (horns and bushes in every direction. 
 
24 
 
 Forest 
 Groups. 
 
 Avenues. 
 
 In that part of the forest near Lay- 
 tonstonc and Woodford, and indeed in all 
 forest thickets, it m ill be seen that each 
 mass of thorns or brushwood contains one 
 or more young trees, to which it acts as 
 nurse and protector; these trees require 
 no other defence against the numerous 
 herds of cattle, and they grow to a pro- 
 digious size; but to the latest period of 
 their existence, especially in Windsor fo- 
 rest, we often see an aged thorn at the 
 foot of a venerable oak, forming the most 
 picturesque and interesting group — like 
 the fond but decrepid nurse, still clinging 
 to her foster child, though it no longer 
 needs her assistance. 
 
 It seems to have been as much the 
 fashion of the present century {o?igi?ialli/ 
 written in 1794) to destroy avenues, as it 
 was in the last to plant them ; and while 
 many people think they sufficiently jus- 
 tify their opinion, in either case, by say- 
 ing, ' I like an avenue,' or ' I hate an 
 avenue,' let us endeavour to analyze this 
 approbation or disgust. 
 
 The pleasure which the mind derives 
 
S5 
 
 from tlie love of Or^/er, of Unity ^ of Anti- 
 quity, and of Continuity, are in a certain 
 degree gratified by the long perspective 
 view of a stately avenue; even when it 
 consists of trees in rows so far apart, that 
 their branches do not touch: but where 
 they grow so near as to imitate the gran- 
 deur, the gloomy shade, and almost the 
 shelter of a Gothic Cathedral, we may 
 add the Comfort and Convenience of such 
 an avenue to all the other considerations 
 of its beauty. A long avenue, terminated 
 by a large old mansion, is a magnificent 
 object, although it may not be a proper 
 subject for a picture; but the \'\c\v from 
 such a mansion is perhaps among the 
 greatest objections to an avenue, because 
 it destroys all variety; since the same 
 landscape would be seen from every house 
 in the kingdom, if a view between rows 
 of trees deserves the name of landscape. 
 
 If at the end of a long avenue be 
 placed &n obelisk, a temple, or any other 
 eye-trap (as it is called), it will only catch 
 or please the eye of ignorance or child- 
 hood. The eye of taste and experience 
 
26 
 
 hates compulsion, and turns with disgust 
 from such puerile means of attracting its 
 notice. One great mischief of an avenue 
 is, that it divides a park, and cuts it into 
 two distinct parts, destroying the unity of 
 lawn; for it is hardly possible to avoid dis- 
 tinguishing the ground on the two sides 
 of such an avenue into north and south 
 park, or east and west division of the 
 lawn. 
 
 But the greatest objection to an ave- 
 nue is, that (especially in uneven ground) 
 it often acts as a curtain drawn across the 
 most interesting scenery : it is in undraw- 
 ing this curtain at proper places that the 
 utility of what has been called breaking 
 an avenue consists. 
 
 If the fashion in gardening, like the 
 fashion in dress, could be changed witli no 
 other difficulty than that of expence, we 
 might follow its dictates, without any 
 other consideration; we might boldly mo- 
 dernise old places, and reduce all improve- 
 ment to the whim and caprice of the day, 
 and alter them again on the morrow; but 
 the change of fashion in Gardening de- 
 
27 
 
 stroys the work of ages, wlien lofty ave- 
 nues are cut down for no other reason 
 but because they were planted in straight 
 rows, according to the fashion of former 
 times. "^ ' 
 
 " F-very sacrifice of large trees must be made with 
 caution; at the same time there may be situations in 
 wliich trees are not to be respected for their size 3 on 
 the contrary, it is that which makes them objection- 
 able. Wc lind that all trees grow more luxuriantly in 
 valleys than on the hills j and thus it is possible that very 
 uneven ground may be reduced to a level surface, if we 
 judge of it by the tops of the trees. The hills at Long- 
 Jcat have been boldly planted, and at the same period 
 many fast-growing trees were planted in tlie valleys ; 
 these latter are become in many places too tall for their 
 situation. There are some limes and planes and lofty 
 elms near the water, in situations where maples and 
 crabs, thorns and alders, or even oaks and chesnuts, 
 would be far more appropriate. 
 
 There is no error more common than to suppose, 
 that the planter may not live to see his hiture woods, 
 unless they consist of firs and larches, and Lombardy 
 poplars, and other fastgrowing trees j but every day's 
 experience evinces that man outlives the beauty of his 
 trees, where plantations do not consist of oak. On the 
 contrary, tall mutilated planes, or woods of naked-stemmed 
 firs, remind him that groups of oak and groves of chesntit 
 might have been planted with greater advantage. 
 
28 
 
 Works of It is not therefore in compliance with 
 
 Art. . . 
 
 the modern fashion for destroying avenues 
 
 that I advised the removal of a few tall 
 trees near the house at Longleat, hut that 
 the character of greatness in a work of 
 art, like this Palace, should not be obli- 
 terated by the more powerful agency of 
 nature. Without going back to that taste 
 when this vast pile was surrounded by 
 lines of cut shrubs, and avenues of young 
 trees newly planted, much of its grandeur 
 might be restored, by judiciously remov- 
 ing the encroachments of vegetation: of 
 this kind are some of the tall shattered 
 elms remaining of the avenue near the 
 house, Avhich evidently tend to depress 
 its importance. 
 Appcnda-cs Whcn the artificial but magnificent 
 
 to a Palace. ^ 
 
 style of Geometric Gardening of Le Notre 
 was changed to the more natural style 
 of Landscape Gardening, it often hap- 
 pened that too little respect was paid to 
 the costly appendages of English palaces; 
 for although near the small houses of coun- 
 try gentlemen the barns and rick-yards, 
 and kitchen gardens, might give way to 
 
£9 
 
 the shaven lawn in the front of such 
 houses ; yet to place a palace in the mid- 
 dle of a grass field was one of those ex- 
 cesses of innovation, to which all kinds 
 of reform are ever liable. 
 
 The first object of improvement at Example. 
 
 T 1 ' ^ • 1 ^ r \ Longleat. 
 
 Longleat, within the department or Art, 
 should be to restore its architectural im- 
 portance, to increase its greatness, by 
 spreading its influence; but this requires 
 some caution. The stables and the offices 
 should form parts of one great whole; 
 but if they be too much extended, or too 
 rich in design, they will counteract this 
 effect. 
 
 A palace must not be a solitary object; Appendages 
 
 , , , atidched. 
 
 it requires to be supported and surrounded 
 by subordinate buildings, which, like the 
 attendants on Royalty, form part of its 
 state; but a building of greater length 
 than the house becomes a rival, rather 
 than an humble attendant: and there is 
 some dangrerin makino* stables and meaner 
 offices dispute with the house in richness 
 of ornament. It will be sufficient if the 
 gates, or some elevated turrets of such 
 
30 
 
 buildings, present the same character and 
 date, without exactly copying the detail 
 of those costly ornaments, in which the 
 palace abounds. . - ' . 
 
 Detached. This remark is applicable to all such 
 
 large buildings as may be necessary near 
 the house; but in the small buildings at 
 a distance the same richness of ornament 
 may prevail, where it is not inconsistent 
 with the respective uses of such build- 
 ings. For this reason I recommend the 
 entrance of this place to be marked by 
 magnificent gates, rather than by humble 
 cottages, however picturesque. The farm 
 house and the poultry house, and phea- 
 santry half-buried in wood, may preserve 
 their humble and appropriate character; 
 but if any building be made conspicuous, 
 it should be ornamented in proportion to 
 its situation and uses. Thus a keeper's 
 lodge or a huntsman's kennel in the val- 
 leys may be useful, without aifecting to 
 be ornamental; but when it occupies an 
 elevated station it should make a part of 
 the scenery M^orthy of the general cha- 
 racter of the place. 
 
31 
 
 One of the greatest errors in JModern Separate 
 
 , . Establish- 
 
 Gardening has been that of placing a ment. 
 large house, not only on a naked lawn, 
 but in the centre of it: to accomplish 
 this, in some places towns have been re- 
 moved, and villages destroyed, that the 
 modern park might surround it in every 
 direction. There are many comforts and 
 agremens, Avhich by this practice must 
 be banished to an inconvenient distance, 
 such as the gardens, the pheasantry or 
 menageries, the dairy farm, paddocks, &c. 
 and where, as at Longleat, each of these 
 are on a very large scale, they become so 
 many separate detached establishments: 
 and provided the lines of communication 
 be well managed, they become so many 
 separate objects of interest in the place/ 
 
 The dairy farm is as much a part of Dairy Far™ 
 
 •^ ^ ^ Buildings. 
 
 the place as the deer park, and in many 
 respects more picturesque; consisting of 
 such varied and pleasing inclosures, and 
 
 ^ Here the distant kitchen garden is connected with 
 the house by a pleasure ground so perfect in its kind, 
 that it only requires to be brought in closer contact with 
 the house, 
 
32 
 
 and 50 enriched by groups of trees, that 
 it would not be improved by the removal 
 of any hedges: its character is strictly 
 preserved by the style of the buildings; 
 an old farm house, a labourer's cottage, 
 a hay stack, or a thatched hovel, are far 
 more appropriate than the pseudo Gothic 
 dairy, or the French painted trellis in a 
 useful dairy farm; but in a park some- 
 thing more is expected. 
 Park The park is an appendage of magni- 
 
 Building. , , „ .,. 1 • , 
 
 hcence rather than or utility, and its de- 
 corations therefore should partake of the 
 character of the palace; they should ap- 
 pear to belong to its state and ornament; 
 they should rather consist of covered 
 seats, a pavilion, or a prospect room, than 
 objects of mere use, as a hay barn, or a 
 cottage, because the latter may be found 
 in any grass field, but the former denote 
 a superior degree of importance. 
 
 It has been a practice of late to erect 
 a lofty tower, column, or obelisk, on the 
 summit of the highest hill in a park; but 
 such practice tends to lessen the apparent 
 greatness of a place ; for as we can seldom 
 
lose sight of so conspicuous a landmark, 
 we are in a manner tethered to the same 
 object/ 
 
 I shall add to this enquiry into the 
 Changes of Taste the following remark, 
 extracted from ' the Sketches and Hints,' 
 pubh'shed in 1794. 
 
 There is no part of my profession more styles 
 
 compared; 
 
 difficult and troublesome than the attempt 
 to modernize, in part only, those places, 
 which have been formerly decorated by 
 theline and square of GeometricTaste. 
 To explain this difficulty, the difference 
 between the principles on Avhich improve- 
 ments are now conducted, and those 
 which governed the style of former pe- 
 riods, may be thus stated. 
 
 The perfection o^ Landscape Gar de?nng Modem 
 consists in the four following requisites; 
 
 8 This would not be the case with the building pro- 
 posed for an eminence in Longleat Park, because this 
 spot is every where surrounded by more lofty hills, and 
 therefore it would only be seen occasionally along the 
 several valleys, and would from eveiy point of view 
 become a pleasing embellishment, and not an obtrusive 
 feature of the place, 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 I'irst, it must display the natural beau- 
 ties, and hide the natural defects of every 
 situation. Secondly, it should give the 
 appearance of extent and freedom, by 
 carefully disguising or hiding the boun- 
 dary. Thirdly, it must studiously conceal 
 every interference of art, however ex- 
 pensive, by which the natural scenery is 
 improved; making the whole appear the 
 production of nature only; ^nd fourthly, 
 all objects of mere convenience*' or com- 
 fort, if incapable of being made orna- 
 mental, or of becoming proper parts of 
 the general scenery, must be removed or 
 concealed. 
 Ancieit Each of thcsc four objects enume- 
 
 rated are strictly opposite to the princi- 
 ples of ancient gardening, which may 
 thus be stated : First, the natural beau- 
 ties or defects of a situation had no influ- 
 ence, when it was the fashion to exclude 
 by lofty walls every surrounding object. 
 
 h This last article, I confess, has occasionally misled 
 modern improvers into the absurdity of not only banish- 
 ing the appearance, but tlie reality, of all comfort and 
 convenience to a distance; frequently exemplified in the 
 bad choice of a spot for the kitchen garden. 
 
 Recjuisites. 
 
Secondly, tliese walls were never consi- 
 dered as defects, but, on the contrary, 
 were ornamented with vases, expensive 
 iron gates, and palisades, to render them 
 more conspicuous. Thirdly, so far from 
 making gardens appear natural, every ex- 
 pedient was used to display the costly 
 efforts of Art, by which Nature had been 
 subdued: the ground was levelled by a 
 line; the water was squared or rounded 
 into regular basons ; the trees, if not 
 clipped into artificial shapes, were at least 
 so planted by line and measurement, that • 
 the formal hand of art could no where be 
 mistaken. And, Fourthly, with respect to 
 objects of convenience, they were placed 
 as near the house as possible: the stables, 
 the barns, and the kitchen garden, were 
 among the ornaments of a place; while 
 the village, the almshouse, the parish 
 school, and church-yard, were not at- 
 tempted to be concealed by the walls or 
 palisades that divided them from the em- 
 bellished pleasure ground. 
 
 Congruity of style, uniformity of cha- ofUnity. 
 racter, and harmony of parts with the 
 
\ 
 
 56 
 
 whole, are different modes of expressing 
 uniti/j without which no composition can 
 be perfect; yet there are few principles 
 in gardening which seem to be so little 
 understood. This essential unity has often 
 been mistaken for symmetry, or the cor- 
 respondence of similar parts; as where 
 
 * Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother. 
 And half the platform just reflects the otiier.' 
 
 POPE. 
 
 Indeed this symmetry in the works of 
 art was perfectly justifiable under that 
 style of gardening which confined within 
 lofty walls the narrow inclosure appro- 
 priated to ancient grandeur. 
 
 When the whole design is meant to 
 be surveyed at a single glance, the eye 
 is assisted in its oflSce, by making its di- 
 visions counterparts of each other; and 
 as it was confessedly the object of the 
 artist to display his labour, and the great- 
 ness of the effort by which he had sub- 
 dued nature, it coidd not possibly be 
 more conspicuous than in such shapes of 
 land and water as were most unnatural 
 
o 
 
 7 
 
 and violent. Hence arose tlie sloped 
 terrace, the square and octagon pool, and 
 all those geometric figures which were 
 intended to contrast, and not to assimi- 
 late with, any scenes in nature : yet within 
 this small inclosure an unity of design 
 was strictly preserved, and few attempts 
 made to extend it farther than the gar- 
 den wall. 
 
 From the difference of taste in Gar- 
 dening betwixt the seventeenth and the 
 eighteenth centuries, it seems at first 
 sight almost impossible to lay down any 
 fixed principles. It appears that in this 
 instance, as in many others, mankind are 
 apt to fly from one extreme to the other: 
 thus, because straight lines and highly 
 finished and correspondent parts prevailed 
 in the ancient style, some modern im- 
 provers have mistaken crookedness for 
 the line of beauty, and slovenly careless- 
 ness for natural ease: they call every spe- 
 cies of regularity formal; and with the 
 hacknied assertion, that nature abhors a 
 straight line, they fatigue the eye with 
 continual curvatures. 
 
38 
 
 Symmetry. There appears to be in the human mind 
 a natural love of order and symmetry. 
 Children, who at first draw a house upon 
 a slate, generally represent it with corre- 
 spondent parts; it is so with the infancy 
 of taste. Those who during the early 
 part of life have given little attention to 
 objects of taste, are captivated with the 
 regularity and symmetry of correspond- 
 ent parts, without any knowledge of con- 
 gruity, or an harmony of parts with the 
 whole: this accounts for those numerous 
 specimens of bad taste, M'hich are so com- 
 monly observable in the neighbourhood 
 of great towns, where we see Grecian 
 villas spreading their little Gothic wings, 
 and red brick castles, supported by Gre- 
 cian pavilions: but though congruity may 
 be banished, symmetry is never forgotten. 
 If such be the love of symmetry in the 
 human mind, it surel}' becomes a fair 
 object of inquiry, how far it ought to be 
 admitted or rejected in modern garden- 
 ing. The following observation from 
 Montesquieu on Taste seems to place the 
 subject in a proper light. 
 
S9 
 
 *' Wherever symmetry is useful to the ^^^^ 
 
 " soul, and may assist her functions, it is 
 
 " agreeable to her; but wherever it is 
 
 " useless, it becomes distasteful, because 
 
 " it takes away variety: therefore things 
 
 *' that wc see in succession ought to have 
 
 " variety, for our soul has no difficulty in 
 
 "seeing them: those, on the contrary, 
 
 " that we see at one glance, ought to 
 
 *' have symmetry;, thus at one glance we 
 
 " see the front of a building, a parterre, 
 
 " a temple; in such things there is always 
 
 *' a symmetry which pleases the soul, by 
 
 " the facility it gives her of taking the 
 
 " whole object at once." 
 
 It is upon this principle that I have 
 frequently advised the most perfect sym- 
 metry in those small flower-gardens which 
 are generally placed in the front of a 
 green-house or orangery, in some inner 
 part of the grounds, where, being secluded 
 from the general scenery, they become a 
 kind of episode to the great and more 
 conspicuous parts of the place. In such 
 small inclosures irregularity would appear 
 like affectation. Symmetry is also allow^ 
 able, and indeed necessary, at or near 
 
i6 
 
 the front of a regular building; because, 
 Avhere that displays correspondent parts, 
 if the lines in contact do not also corre- 
 spond, the house itself will appear twisted 
 and awry. Yet this degree of symmetry 
 ought to go no farther than a small dis- 
 tance from the house, and should be con- 
 fined to such objects as arc confessedly 
 the works of art, for the use of man ;' such 
 
 < " In forming plans for embellishing a field, an 
 '^ artist without taste employs straight lines, circles, 
 " and squares, because these look best upon paper. 
 " He perceives not, that to humour and adorn nature 
 " is the perfection of his art, and that nature, neglect- 
 " ing regvalarity, distributes her objects in great variety 
 " with a bold hand. (Some old gardens were disposed 
 " like the human frame, dleys like legs, and arms 
 " answering each other, the great walk in the middle 
 " representing the trunk of the body.) Nature indeed, 
 " in organized bodies comprehended under one view, 
 " studies regularity, which, for the same reason, ought 
 " to be studied in architecture. But in large objects, 
 " which cannot be surveyed but in parts and by suc- 
 " cession, regularity and uniformity would be useless 
 " properties, because they cannot be discovered by the 
 " eye. Nature therefore, in her large works, neglects 
 " these properties, and in copying nature the artist 
 " ought to neglect them." 
 
 Lord Ka'ims Elements of Criticism. 
 
, 41 
 
 as a road, a walk, or an ornamental fenoe, 
 whether of wood or iron; but it is not 
 necessary it should extend to plantations, 
 canals, or over the natural shape of the 
 o;round. 
 
 After tracing the various past changes conclusion 
 of Taste in Gardening and Architecture, Enquiry. 
 I cannot suppress my opinion that we are 
 on the eve of some great future change 
 in both those arts, in consequence of our 
 having lately become acquainted Avith 
 Scenery and Buildings in the interior 
 provinces of India. The beautiful designs 
 published by Daniell, Hodges, and other 
 artists, have produced a new source of 
 beauty, of elegance, and grace, which 
 may justly vie with the best specimens 
 of Grecian or Gothic architecture: and 
 although the misapplication of these novel 
 forms will probably introduce much bad 
 taste in the future architecture of this 
 country, yet we may reasonably expect 
 that some advantage will be taken of such 
 beautiful forms as have never before been 
 
42 
 
 adopted in Europe. When a partiality for 
 such forms is patronized and supported 
 by the highest rank, and the most acknow- 
 ledged taste, it becomes the duty of the 
 professor to raise the importance, by in- 
 creasing the variety of his art. It is there- 
 fore with pecuhar satisfaction that my 
 opinion has lately been required in some 
 great works of this style, which are in too 
 early a stage of progress to be referred to 
 in this volume, although an enquiry into 
 the past changes in the general Taste of a 
 country may properly conclude with such 
 notice concerning the future changes 
 probably to be expected. 
 
PART II. 
 
 1 o improve the scenery of a country, introdus- 
 and to display its native beauties with ad- 
 vantage, is an art Avhich originated iii 
 England, and has therefore been called 
 English Gardening; yet, as this expression 
 is not sufficiently appropriate, especially 
 since Gardening, in its more confined 
 sense of Horticulture, has been likewise 
 brought to the greatest perfection in 
 this country, I have adopted the term 
 Landscape Gardening, because the Landscape 
 art can only be advanced and perfected by wh'y^"o"^* 
 the united powers of the landscape painter 
 and the practical gardener. The former' 
 must conceive a plan which the latter may 
 be able to execute; for though a painter 
 may represent a beautiful landscape on his 
 canvas, and even surpass nature by the 
 combination of her choicest materials; yet 
 the luxuriant imagination of the painter " 
 must be subjected to the gardener's prac- ■ 
 tical knowledge in planting, digging, and 
 
44 
 
 moving earth; that the simplest and rea- 
 diest means of accomplishing each design 
 may he suggested; since it is not by vast 
 labour, or great expence, that nature is 
 generally to be improved; on the con- 
 trary, 
 
 * Ce noble emploi demande un artiste qui pense, 
 Prodigue de genie, mais non pas de depense.' 
 
 LES JAKDINS. 
 
 Requisites 
 of a 
 
 Landscape 
 Gardener. 
 
 If the knowledge of painting be insuf- 
 ficient without that of gardening, on the 
 other hand, the mere gardener, without 
 somevskill in painting, will seldom be able 
 to form a just idea of effects, before they 
 are carried into e.veciition. This faculty of 
 foreknowing effects constitutes the master 
 in every branch of the polite arts; and 
 can only be the result of a correct eye, a 
 ready conception, and a fertihty of inven- 
 tion, to which the professor adds practical 
 experience. 
 
 Of this art, painting and gardening 
 are not the only foundations: the artist 
 must possess a competent knowledge of 
 mrveyingi mechanics^ hydraulics, agricul- 
 
45 
 
 iure, botany, and architecture. It can 
 hardly be expected that a man bred, and 
 constantly living, in the kitchen garden, 
 should possess all these requisites; yet, be- 
 cause tlie immortal Brown was originally 
 a kitchen gardener, it is too common to 
 find every man, who can handle a rake 
 or a spade, pretending to give his opinion 
 on the most difficult points of improve- 
 ment. It may perhaps be asked, from. 
 whence Mr. BroM'n derived his know- 
 ledge? the answer is obvious: that bein^ 
 at first patronised by a few persons of 
 rank and acknowledged good taste, he 
 acquired by degrees the faculty of pre- 
 judging effects; partly from repeated trials, 
 and partly from the experience of those 
 to whose conversation and intimacy his 
 genius had introduced him : and although 
 he could not design himself, there exist 
 many pictures of scenery, made under his 
 instruction, which his imagination alone 
 had painted.'' 
 
 k I must not in this place omit to acknowledge my 
 obligations to Launcelot Brown, Esq. late member for 
 
46 
 
 Since the art of Landscape Gardening 
 requires the combination of certain por- 
 tions of knowledge in so many different 
 arts, it is no wonder that the professors 
 of each should respectively suggest what 
 is most obvious to their own experience; 
 and thus the painter, the kitchen gardener, 
 the engineer, the land agent, and the archi- 
 tect, will frequently propose expedients 
 different from those which the landscape 
 gardener may think proper to adopt. The 
 difficulties which I have occasionally ex- 
 perienced from these contending interests 
 induced me to make a complete digest of 
 each subject proposed to my consideration, 
 assigning the reasons on which my opinion 
 was founded, and stating the comparative 
 advantages to the whole, of adopting or 
 rejecting certain parts of any plan. 
 
 Finding that a mere^map was no more 
 capable of conveying an idea of the Land- 
 scape, than the ground plan of an house 
 
 Huntingdonshire, the son of my predecessor, for having 
 presented me with the maps of tlie greatest works in 
 which his father had been consulted, both in their 
 original and improved states. 
 
47 
 
 does of its elevatmi, I not only delivered 
 my opinions in writing, that they might 
 not be misconceived or misrepresented; 
 but I invented the peculiar kind of slides 
 to my sketches, which have been imitated 
 by the engraver in my two large works 
 on this subject. 
 
 Such drawings, to show the proposed 
 effects, can be useful but in a very few 
 instances : yet I have often remarked, 
 with some mortification, that it is the 
 only part of my labours which the com- 
 mon observer has time or leisure to ex- 
 amine; although it is the least part of 
 that perfection in the art, to which these 
 remarks will, I hope, in some degree con- 
 tribute. 
 
 I confess that the great object of my 
 ambition was, not to produce a book of 
 pictures, but to furnish some hints for 
 establishing the fact, that true taste in 
 Landscape Gardening, as well as in all the 
 other polite arts, is not an accidental 
 effect operating on the outward senses, 
 but an appeal to the understanding, which 
 i» able to compare, to separate, and to 
 
Characters. 
 
 48 
 
 combine, the various sources of pleasure 
 derived from external objects, and to 
 trace them to some pre-existing causes 
 in the structure of the human mind.' 
 
 Of All rational improvement of ground? 
 
 Situations . • i i i 
 
 and is necessarily founded on a due attention, 
 
 to the Character and Situationt of 
 the place to be improved : the former 
 teaches what is advisable, the latter what 
 is possible to be done. Nothing can be 
 more distinct than these two objects, yet 
 they must be jointly taken into consi- 
 deration, because one is often influenced 
 by the other. 
 
 The Situation of a place always de- 
 pends on Nature, which can only b? 
 assisted, but cannot be entirely changed, 
 or greatly controlled by Art: but the 
 
 ' " Where disposition, Avhere decorum, where con- 
 '* gruity, are concerned^ in short, wherever the best 
 *' taste differs from the worst, I am con\ inced that the 
 " understanding operates, and nothing else," 
 
 Burkes Preface to Subrime and Beautiful. 
 
49 
 
 Character of a place is wholly dependant 
 on Art: thus the house, the buildings, 
 the gardens, the roads, the bridges, and 
 every circumstance which marks the lia- 
 bitation of man, must be artificial; and 
 although in the works of art we may imi- 
 tate the forms and graces of nature, yet, 
 to make them truly natural, always leads 
 to absurdity. 
 
 In, deciding on the character of any 
 place, some attention must be given to 
 its situation with respect to other places; 
 to the natural shape of the ground on 
 which the house is, or may be, built; to 
 the size and style of the house, and ev'en 
 to the rank of its possessor; together 
 with the use which he intends to make 
 of it, whether as a mansion, or constant 
 residence, a sporting seat, or a villa; 
 which particular objects require distinct 
 and opposite treatment. 
 
 To give some idea of the great variety 
 that abounds in the characters and situa- 
 tions of different places, it will be proper 
 to insert a few specimens from different 
 subjects. 
 
50 
 
 Example of Bvandsbuvy is situated on a broad swel- 
 KnoU. ling hill, the ground gently falling from 
 the house (which looks on rich distances) 
 in almost every direction. Except a very 
 narrow slip of plantation to the north, 
 two large elms near the house, and a fcAV 
 in hedge-rows at a distance, the spot was 
 destitute of trees : the first object, there- 
 fore, was to shelter the house by home 
 shrubberies; as on land of such value ex- 
 tensive plantations would be an unpardon- 
 able want of economy. 
 
 No general plan of embellishment for 
 a villa can perhaps be devised more eligible 
 than that so often adopted by Mr. Brown, 
 viz. to surround apaddock with afence,in- 
 closing a shrubbery and gravel walk round 
 the premises : this idea was happily exe- 
 cuted by him at Stanmore; which I was 
 desired to imitate at Brandsbury, with- 
 out considering the difference of the two 
 situations; but I had leave to explain pi}?^- 
 self by the following remarks: and as this 
 happened in 1789, it is here recorded as a 
 testimony of my opinion concerning Belts 
 in that early period of my practice. 
 
51 
 
 " Where the natural shape of the 
 *' ground is concave, as that at Stanmore, 
 " nothing can be more desirable than to 
 " plant the highest ground, and to flood 
 " the lowest by a lake or river; in such a 
 " situation the most pleasing scenes will 
 " be within the pale, looking on the oppo- 
 " site rising bank enriched with trees, 
 '* or occasionally catching distant views 
 " over or beyond the fence. 
 
 " On the contrary^ if the natural shape 
 " be convex, any fence crossing the decli- 
 " vity must intercept those distant views 
 " which an eminence should command, 
 " and which at Brandsbury arc so rich 
 " and varied, that nothing can justify 
 " their total exclusion. A walk round a 
 *' paddock in such a situation, inclosed 
 " by a lofty fence, would be a continual 
 '' source of mortification, as every step 
 " would excite a wish, either to peep 
 " through, or look over, the pale of con- 
 " fmement." 
 
 As all the surrounding country pre- 
 sents the most beautiful pasture, instead 
 of excluding the vast herds of cattle which 
 
52 
 
 enliven the scene, I recommended only a 
 sufficient quantity of land round the house 
 to be inclosed, to shelter and skreen the 
 barns, stables, kitchen garden, offices, and 
 other useful but unpleasing objects; and 
 within this inclosure, though not con- 
 taining more than ten or twelve acres, I 
 proposed to conduct walks through shrub- 
 beries, plantations, and small sequestered 
 lawns, sometimes winding into rich inter- 
 nal scenery, and sometimes breaking out 
 upon the most pleasing points for com- 
 manding distant prospects : at such places 
 the pale is sunk and concealed, while in 
 others it is so hid by plantation, that the 
 twelve acres thus inclosed appear consi- 
 derably larger than the sixty acres ori- 
 ginally intended to be surrounded by a 
 park pale. 
 
 example of MUtoH Park. Where the ground na- 
 
 in'T'fSt turally presents very little inequality of 
 
 °"""^^* surface, a great appearance of extent is 
 
 rather disgusting than pleasing, and little 
 
 advantage is gained by attempts to let in 
 
 distant objects; yet there is such infi- 
 
 mmn^it 
 
53 
 
 nite beauty to be produced by judicious 
 management of the home scenery, as may 
 well compensate the want of prospect. 
 There is always great cheerfulness in a 
 view on a flat lawn well stocked with cat- 
 tle, if it be properly bounded by wood at a 
 distance ; neither too far off to lessen its 
 importance, nor too near to act as a con- 
 finement to the scene; and which contri- 
 butes also to break those straight and 
 parallel lines, that are the only causes of 
 disgust in a flat situation. Uneven ground 
 may be more striking as a picture, and 
 more interesting to the stranger's eye; 
 it may be more bold, or magnificent, or 
 romantic; but the character of cheerful- 
 ness is peculiar to the plain. Whether this 
 effect be produced by the apparent ease 
 of communication, or by the larger pro- 
 portion of sky which enters into the land- 
 scape, or by the different manner in which 
 cattle form themselves into groups on a 
 plain, and on a sloping bank, I confess I 
 am at a loss to decide : all three causes 
 may, perhaps, contribute to produce that 
 degree of cheerfulness which every one 
 
54 
 
 must have ol)served in tliC scenery of 
 Milton. 
 
 Exanpie of The Httscls is situated on a plain cle- 
 an eevated ^ 
 
 plan vated considerably above tlie neighbour- 
 
 ing vale, and is therefore not like the 
 foregoing example, which was in a low 
 flat country. There are fe\r places M'hose 
 situation and character have undergone 
 a greater change. From the former mode 
 of approaching the house, especially from 
 the Cambridge side, a stranger could 
 hardly suppose there was any uneven 
 ground in the park. Even to the south, 
 where the ground naturally falls towards 
 a deep valley, the mistaken interference 
 of art, in former days, had bolstered it 
 up by flat bowling greens, and formal ter- 
 races; while the declivity was so thickly 
 ' planted, as entirely to choke up the lowest 
 
 ground, and shut out all idea of inequa- 
 lity. The fust object of improvement is 
 to point out those beautiful shapes of 
 surface which so copiously prevail in 
 several parts of this park; the second is 
 to change its character, of gloom arid 
 
55 
 
 sombre dampness, to a more cheerful 
 shade ; and the third is, to mark the 
 whole with that degree of importance 
 and extent, which the size of the house 
 and the surrounding territory demand. 
 
 If the first impressions made by any character 
 
 e> ' °^ Crewe. 
 
 place be greatly difterent from its true 
 character, it becomes necessary to inves- 
 tigate the cause that may have rendered 
 the first judgment erroneous. I had been 
 led, from a consideration of the antiquity 
 of the Crewe family in Cheshire, to expect , 
 
 a certain degree of magnificence; but my 
 first view ot" the house being from an un- 
 favourable point, and at too great a dis- 
 tance to judge of its real magnitude, I 
 conceived it to be very small; and (mea- 
 suring the surrounding objects by this 
 false standard) the whole place lost that 
 importance which I afterwards found it 
 assume on a closer examination. This 
 may be explained from the following 
 causes. 
 
 In former days the dignity of a house 
 was supposed to increase in proportion to 
 the quantity of walls and buildings with 
 
56" 
 
 which it M'as surrounded: to these were 
 sometimes added tall ranks of trees, whose 
 sliade contributed to the gloom at that 
 time held essential to maanificence. 
 
 Modern taste lias discovered, that 
 greatness and cheerfulness are not incom- 
 patible; it has thrown down the ancient 
 palisade and lofty walls, because it is 
 aware that liberty is the true portal of 
 happiness; yet Avhilc it encourages more 
 cheerful freedom, it must not lay aside 
 becoming dignity. When we formerly 
 approached the mansion through a vil- 
 lage of its poor dependants, we were not 
 offended at their proximity, because the 
 massy gates and numerous courts suffi- 
 ciently marked the distance betwixt the 
 palace and the cottage.™ 
 
 As it is only from the number and 
 variety of different cases that any general 
 principles can be deduced, I shall briefly 
 add a few more to the preceding (which 
 
 m I have purposely recorded this example, to shew 
 my early objection to the modem system of hiding the 
 offices and appendages to houses, especially to ancient 
 mansions. 
 
57 
 
 are extracted from the " Sketches and 
 Hints"), in which the greatest contrast 
 may be discovered. 
 
 Where the ground near a mansion is Natural 
 
 Situations 
 
 evidently unnatural, it is necessary to changed by 
 begin the enquiry by endeavouring to 
 discover to what extent art has inter- 
 fered : three cases, nearly similar in this 
 respect, have occurred at TVelbecky at 
 JFobum Abbey, and at Kidbrook. The 
 oTound near each of these houses consists 
 of a plain, which has been formed by 
 levelling and filling in the cavities pro- 
 duced by the junction of two brooks, 
 although scarcely any traces remain of 
 their original courses. It has been re- 
 marked that in many parts of America 
 and the West Indies the destruction of 
 woods has rendered the brooks and rivers 
 almost dry; and doubtless the same cause 
 has operated in this country, as may be 
 observed in the vicinity of former great 
 forests. In Leland's Itinerary, Welbeck 
 is described as standing at the conflux of 
 two streams, one of which is now become 
 so small, as to be carried through an arch 
 
58 
 
 under ground. The same thing is done 
 
 at Wohurn Abbey, and also at Kidbrook. 
 
 It is now perhaps equally impossible and 
 
 unadvisable to restore the ground to its 
 
 natural shapes; but an enquiry into such 
 
 original shape of ground facilitates the 
 
 operations of any change in the surface. 
 
 Levelling lu the "Observations, &c.'' many ex- 
 
 Ground. , . r* 1 • 1 
 
 amples are given ot changing the sur- 
 face, or, as it is technically called, "mov- 
 ing ground;" to these I may add, that 
 one of the greatest difficulties I have ex- 
 perienced in practice proceeds from that 
 fondness for levelling, so prevalent in all 
 Brown's workmen : every hillock is by 
 them loM'cred, and every hollow filled, to 
 produce a level surface : when, on the 
 contrary, with far less expence, the sur- 
 face may be increased in apparent extent 
 by raising the hills and sinking the hol- 
 lows. Such operations must of course be 
 confined to subjects of small extent, and 
 it is in these that they produce great 
 beauty and variety." 
 
 " I may refer to examples of tliis mode of levelling 
 ground at Bulstrode, where two small dells in the flower 
 
In disposing of the area opposite Sloane Example 
 Street, a new mode of treatment for a cadogan 
 square was adopted. Instead of raising 
 the surface to the level of the street, as 
 had heen usually the custom, by bringing 
 earth from a distance, I recommended a 
 valley to be formed through its whole 
 length, with other lesser valleys flowing 
 into it, and the hills to be raised by 
 the ground so taken from the valleys. 
 Although, in compliance with the general 
 custom and use of a square, the walk on 
 two sides is carried straight, yet the other 
 walks are made to take such curves as 
 the supposed natural shapes of the ground 
 might warrant; and thus the appearance 
 of nature is in some degree preserved in 
 this evidently artificial subject. I cannot 
 omit to mention, that in the plan, a brook 
 was proposed to pass through the valley, 
 which might have been supplied with the 
 
 garden are united into one valley : and at Wilton Park, 
 in that neighbourhood, where a small valley has been 
 formed between the house and the orangerie with great 
 effect. 
 
Go 
 
 overflowings from the serpentine river; 
 but tliis was omitted in the execution. 
 
 Russell The cliflerent character and situation 
 
 Square. r r n a 
 
 or liusscU Square may furnish another 
 example. The ground of this area had all 
 been brought to one level plain at too 
 great an ex pence to admit of its being 
 altered; and the great size of this square 
 is in a manner lost by this insipid shape. 
 The Statue. Equestriuii Statues have usually been 
 placed in the centre of public squares, but 
 in one of such large dimensions no com- 
 mon sized object could be sufficiently dis- 
 tinguished: it was therefore very judi- 
 ciously determined (by a committee) to 
 place the fine Statue of the late Duke of 
 Bedford, now ])reparing by the ingenious 
 Mr.Wesmacot, on one side of the square 
 facing Bloomsbury, and forming an a])- 
 propriate perspective, as seen through 
 the vista of the streets crossing the two 
 squares. 
 
 This pedestrian statue, supported by 
 a group of four figures, on a lofty pedes- 
 tal, will be of sufficient magnitude for 
 tlie breadth of the vista; though it would 
 
■^1 '■;■■. 
 
 have been lost in the middle of so large a 
 square. Much of the eifect of this splen- 
 did ornament will depend on its back 
 ground ; for although the white pedestal 
 may be relieved by the shrubs immedi- 
 ately behind it, the bronze figures should 
 be seen opposed to the sky. This is a 
 circumstance which 1 hope will be at- 
 tended to in the future pruning of those 
 trees in the grove behind it. 
 
 As this square is a subject easily re- Details and 
 ferred to, and as for the first few years of 
 its growth it will be liable to some criti- 
 cism, because few are in the habit of an- 
 ticipating the future effects of plantation, 
 the intention of the plan is here inserted. 
 
 To skreen the broad gravel-walk from 
 the street, a compact hedge is intended 
 to be kept dipt to about six feet high; 
 this, composed of hornbeam and privet, 
 will become almost as impervious as a 
 hedge of laurels, or other evergreens, 
 which will not succeed in a London at- 
 mosphere. Within the gravel -walk is 
 a broad margin of grass, on which the 
 children may be kept always in sight 
 
62 
 
 from the windows of the houses imme- 
 diately opposite; and for this reason, 
 (founded on the particular wishes of some 
 motliers) i he lawn is less clothed with plan- 
 tation than it might have been on the 
 principle of beauty only. This circular 
 lawn, or zone of open space, surrounds 
 the central area, in which have been con- 
 sulted the iuture effect of shade, and a 
 greater degree of privacy or seclusion. 
 
 The outline of this area is formed by 
 a walk under two rows of lime trees, 
 regularly planted at equal distances, not 
 in a perfect circle, but finishing towards 
 the statue in two straight lines directed 
 to the angle of the pedestal. It is possible 
 that some fanciful advocates for natural 
 gardening will olyect to this disposition 
 of the trees as too formal; and they will 
 be further shocked at my expressing a 
 wish that the arch formed by these trees 
 over the walk should be cut and trimmed 
 so as to become a perfect artificial shade, 
 forming a cloister-like walk composed of 
 trees. For this purpose the suckers or 
 sprays from the stems should be encou- 
 
63 
 
 vagcd, to make the interior perfectly 
 secluded. In the due attention to the 
 training and trimming such trees by art 
 consists the difference between a garden 
 and a park or forest; and no one will, I 
 trust, contend that a public square should 
 affect to imitate tlie latter. 
 
 The area inclosed within these lime 
 trees may be more varied; and as it will 
 consist of four distinct compartments, 
 that nearest the statue is proposed to be 
 shaded by a grove of various trees, scat- 
 tered with less regularity, while tlie otlier 
 three may be enriched with flowers and 
 shrubs each disposed in a different man- 
 ner to indulge the various tastes for regu- 
 lar or irregular gardens; yet always bear- 
 ina* in mind that tlie trees should not be 
 suffered to rise too high in the line imme- 
 diately behind the statue. 
 
 As from the great extent of Russell 
 Square it is advisable to provide some 
 seats for shade or shelter, a Reposoir is 
 proposed in the centre, with four low 
 seats, covered with slate or canvas, to 
 f-liclter from rain, and four open seats to 
 
64 
 
 be covered with climbing plants, trained 
 on open lattice, to defend from the sun : 
 these seats surround a small court-yard, to 
 be kept locked, in which may be sheds for 
 gardeners tools, and other useful purposes. 
 A few years hence, when the present 
 patches of shrubs shall have become thick- 
 ets, — when the present meagre rows of 
 trees shall have become an umbrageous 
 avenue, — and the children now in their 
 nurses' arms shall have become the pa- 
 rents or grandsires of future generations, 
 — this square may serve to record, that 
 the Art of Landscape Gardening in the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century was 
 not directed by whim or caprice, but 
 founded on a due consideration of utility 
 as well as beauty, without a bigotted 
 adherence to forms and lines, whether 
 straight, or crooked, or serpentine. 
 
 Examples I" tliosc placcs whcrc thc house already 
 
 dependant cxists, aud tlic charactcT is fixed, the 
 
 on peculiar , . • ^ i 
 
 circiun- grounds must m a certain degree be 
 accommodated to the style of the house: 
 but where a new house is to be built, its 
 
 stances. 
 
proper site and character will depend on 
 various circumstances, of which I shall 
 give two singular examples. ^ 
 
 Within the last forty years the property 
 and even the characters of individuals 
 have undergone more change than in any 
 period of the English history: we daily 
 see M'calth acquired by industry, or by 
 fortunate speculations, succeeding to the 
 hereditary estates of the most ancient fa- 
 milies; and we see the descendants of these 
 families reduced, by the vain attempt to 
 vie in expence with the successful sons 
 of commerce: this will often account for 
 the increase of novel or fantastic edifices, 
 and the decrease of those venerable spe- 
 cimens of former grandeur, the baronial 
 castle, or the castellated mansion. Few- 
 instances occur where the honest pride 
 of ancestry is blended with the prudence 
 and success of commercial importance; 
 yet in one of these I had occasion to 
 deliver the following opinion : 
 
 " The antiquity, the extent, and beauty 
 " of Park," together with the com- 
 
 " The name is omitted^ at the request of the proprietor, 
 F 
 
66 
 
 " mand of adjoining property, might jus- 
 " tify the expenditure of ten times the 
 " sum to which I am instructed to limit 
 " my plans. I shall therefore describe 
 *' what may be done, and not what might 
 " be done, to fix the true character for 
 " this house, since it cannot be a palace, 
 " and perhaps ought not to be a castle: 
 " from its situation it certainly ought not 
 " to be a villa; it ought not to be a cot- 
 " tage, and as a shooting-box, the pre- 
 " sent rooms in the farm-house are suf- 
 " ficient for a bachelor: but this must be 
 " the residence of a family; and being 
 '* amid the mountains of Wales, at some 
 " distance from society, we must not only 
 '* provide for the accommodation of its 
 " own family in all its various branches, 
 " but for the entertainment of other fa- 
 *' milies in the neighbourhood, and for 
 " the reception of friends and visitors 
 " from distant parts; all this cannot be 
 " expected in a very small house; and 
 " since (without great expence) the an- 
 ** cient baronial castle cannot be imi- 
 " tated, we may perhaps with less diffi- 
 
67 
 
 " CLilty restore that sort of importance 
 " which was forinerly annexed to the 
 •' old Manor House, where the lord of old Manor 
 
 House. 
 
 " the soil resided among his tenants, not 
 " merely for the purpose of collecting 
 *' his rents, but to share the produce of 
 " his estates with his humble dependants, 
 " and where daily plenteous hospitalit}' 
 " was not sacrificed to the occasional 
 " ostentatious refinements of luxury and 
 *' parade." 
 
 " It is not meant to condemn the im- 
 " provements in comfort or convenience 
 " enjoyed in modern society, or to leave 
 " unprovided for every accommodation 
 •' suited to the present habits of life, but 
 " to furnish the means of enjoying them 
 '' without departing from the ancient 
 " character of the place, by erecting or 
 '• restoring on the same identical spot, 
 " and in nearly a similar style, the Grange^ 
 " or old Manor House, which will not be 
 " found incongruous with the surround- 
 " ing scenery, when spread out and con- 
 " nected with all its appendages on the 
 
68 
 
 ' ' cavity between the two hills on the sum- 
 *' mit of this beautiful mountain." ^ 
 Longnor. I shall couclude these examples by a 
 
 remarkable circumstance of another house 
 being restored in the same style and cha- 
 racter on the original site. At the corner 
 of the old mansion of the Burtons at 
 Longnor, is a tomb erected over the body 
 of an ancestor of the present family, who 
 having early become a protestant, died 
 through excess of joy at the news of Queen 
 Elizabeth's accession to the throne, and 
 was refused burial in St. Chad's church at 
 Shrewsbury. On this tomb (though now 
 
 P One of these hills, within a short walk from the 
 house, commands a view of a rich cultivated valley wind- 
 ing through this mountainous scene. Such a prospect 
 derives additional interest with the proprietor of an 
 estate, who must naturally feel the satisfaction of look- 
 ing upon hills and dales, and villages and farms, which 
 he may call his own 3 a satisfaction which, however it 
 may be ridiculed, the vanity of property and the pride 
 of possessions may innocently be gratified, when the 
 proprietor has humanity to reflect how far his influence 
 and benevolence may be extended over the prospect he 
 admires. 
 
69 
 
 scarcely legible) is the following inscrip- 
 tion in characters of that date. 
 
 HERE LIETH THE BODY OF » 
 
 EDWARD BURTON, ESQ. 
 
 WHO DIED ANNO DOMINI I55S. 
 
 JVast for denying Christ, or some notorious Jact, 
 
 That this man's body Christian burial lack't? 
 
 Oh no, not so! his fait hjn I true profession 
 
 Was the chief cause, which then was held transgression. 
 
 When Popery here did reign, the see of Rome 
 Would not admit to any such a tomb 
 Within her idol-temple walls; but he. 
 Truly professing Christianity, 
 Was like Christ Jesus in a garden laid. 
 Where he shall rest in peace till it be said, 
 Come, faithful servant, come receive with me 
 A just reward for thy integrity. 
 
 I advised this tomb to be repaired, and 
 the inscription preserved on a brass plate, 
 covered with a gothic canopy of the same 
 date with the event. This forms an appro- 
 priate ornament at tlie angle of the house, 
 Avhich stands on a bold terrace in the gar- 
 den, commanding an extensive view of 
 
ture. 
 
 70 
 
 the Severn and the distant Welsh moun- 
 tains."' , ) fi. i, 
 
 Buildings The perfection of Landscape Gardening 
 
 of Art. depends on a concealment of those opera- 
 tions of arty hy which nature is emhel- 
 lished ; but where buildings are intro- 
 duced, art declares herself openly. 
 Architcc- This circumstancc renders it abso- 
 
 lutely necessary for the Landscape Gar- 
 dener to have a competent knowledge of 
 Architecture. I am, however, well aware, 
 that no art is more difficult to be acquired; 
 and although every inferior workman pre- 
 tends to give plans for building, yet per- 
 fection in that art is confined to a very 
 ^t\v gentlemen, who, with native genius, 
 and a liberal education, have acquired 
 good taste by travel and observation. This 
 
 'I It was deemed necessary to take down the old 
 house entirely, and I hope it is rebuilt with little varia- 
 tion from the original character : but as in this case I 
 was not consulted as the architect, and have never seen 
 the present house, I can only speak of its situationj and 
 not of its character. 
 
. 71 
 
 remark proceeds from the frequent in- 
 stances of good houses built without any 
 taste, and attempts to embellish scenery 
 b^ ornamental buildings that are totally 
 incongruous to their respective situations. 
 The country carpenter or bricklayer, or 
 even the London builder, is accustomed to 
 consider detached parts ; the architect, on 
 the contrary, considers the whole. There 
 is some degree of merit in building good 
 rooms; there is more in connecting these 
 rooms together: but the architect alone 
 can add to these an outside according to 
 the established rules of art; and where 
 these rules are grossly violated, the eye of 
 taste will instantly be offended, although 
 it may not always be able to explain the 
 cause of its disgust. 
 
 To my profession peculiarly belongs External 
 
 , , /. 1 -^ ^ r Effect of 
 
 the external part or architecture, or a Building. 
 
 ' I am happy to defend my predecessor, as well as 
 rtiyself, from tlie imputation of blending architecture 
 with gardening, by the following extract of a letter from 
 the celebrated author of the English Garden; whose 
 advice (I am sorry to say) did not prevail. 
 
 '' I have lately had some correspondence with Mr. 
 
knowledge of effects of buildings on the 
 surrounding scenery, 1 shall therefore 
 take the folloM'ing extract from my MS. 
 relating to Welbeck, in the possesssion of 
 his Grace the Duke of Portland. 
 
 As every conspicuous building in a 
 park should derive its character from 
 
 " Penn concerning the intended monument you men- 
 " tion" (to Gray, the poet, who is buried in the church- 
 yard adjoining to Stoke Park) 3 " and finding that he 
 " means to consult you on the subject, I have presumed 
 " to tell him, that he will do well if he gives you the 
 " absolute choice of the spot," as well as the size of tl>e 
 " building, which he means to ei-ect to my excellent 
 " friend's memory : for tliough I hold the architectural 
 " taste of Mr. Wyatt in supreme estimation, I also am 
 " uniformly of opinion, that where a place is to be 
 *' formed, he who disposes the ground and arranges 
 "■ the plantations ought to fix the situation at least, if 
 " not to determine the shape and size of the ornamental 
 " buildings. Brown, I know, was ridiculed for turning 
 " architect, but I always thought he did it from a kind 
 " of necessity, having found the great difficulty \\ Inch 
 " must frequently have occurred to him in forming a 
 " picturesque whole, where the previous building had 
 " been ill placed, or of improper dimensions. 
 
 " I am. Sir, your most obedient servant, 
 
 Aston, April 24, 179-2. " W. MasoN." 
 
73 
 
 that of the house, it is very essential to 
 fix with some precision what that charac- 
 ter ought to be; yet the various tastes of 
 successive ages have so blended opposite 
 styles of architecture, that it is often dif- 
 ficult, in an old house, to determine the 
 date to which its true character belongs. 
 From the external effect one might pro- 
 nounce that there are only two charac- oniy two 
 ters in buildings; the one may be called in 
 
 1 ' 7 • / Huildings. 
 
 ptrpendicular, and the other norizontal. 
 
 Under the first I class all buildings erected Perpendi- 
 cular. 
 in England before and during the early 
 
 part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, whether 
 deemed Saracenic, Saxon, Norman, or - 
 the Gothic of the thirteenth and four- 
 teenth centuries; and even that peculiar 
 kind called Queen Elizabeth's Gothic, in 
 which turrets prevailed, though battle- 
 ments were discarded, and Grecian co- 
 lumns occasionally introduced. Under 
 the horizontal character I include all edi- Horizontal 
 fices built since the introduction of a more 
 regular architecture, whether it copies 
 the remains of Grecian or Roman models. 
 There is, indeed, a third kind, in which 
 
 Lines. 
 
74 
 
 neither the horizontal nor perpendicu- 
 lar lines prevail, but which consists of a 
 confused mixture of both; this is called 
 Chinese. ' ' 
 
 The two characters of architecture 
 might perhaps be distinguished by merely 
 calling the one Gothic, or of old date, and 
 the other Grecian, or modem; but it is 
 not the style or date that necessarily de- 
 termines the character. If a building is 
 seen from so great a distance that none 
 of its parts can be distinguished, yet the 
 prevalence of horizontal or perpendi- 
 cular lines at once fixes and determines 
 the character. The first we should call 
 a Grecian, or modern house; the latter 
 a Gothic, or an old house. I may here 
 observe, that it is unnecessary to retain 
 the Gothic character within the mansion, 
 at least farther than the hall, as it would 
 subject such buildings to much inconve- 
 nience ; for since modern improvement 
 has added glass sashed windows to the 
 ancient Grecian and Roman architecture, 
 in like manner the inside of a Gothic 
 building may, with the same propriety, 
 
75 
 
 avail itself of modern comforts and con- 
 venience. ' 
 
 To preserve any dea:ree of unity in a t^^ 
 
 ^ .^ ^. >/ Buildings 
 
 place, the character of the house should of one 
 
 ^ Character. 
 
 prevail in all such buildings as are very 
 conspicuous, or intended as ornaments 
 to the general scenery; such as lodges, 
 pavilions, temples, belvideres, and the 
 like. Yet in adapting the Gothic style 
 to buildings of small extent there may 
 be some reasonable objection: the fasti- 
 diousness even of good taste will per- 
 haps observe, that we always see vast 
 piles of buildings in ancient Gothic re- 
 mains, and that it is a modern, or false 
 Gothic only, which can be adapted to so 
 small a building as a keeper's lodge, a 
 reposoir, or a pavilion. There may be 
 some force in this objection; but there 
 is always so much picturesque effect in 
 the small fragments of those great piles, 
 that without representing them as ruins, 
 it is surely allowable to copy them for 
 the purposes of ornament: and, with re- 
 spect to the mixture of different styles in 
 Gothic edifices, I think there is no incon- 
 
!■ 
 
 76 
 
 gruity, provided the same character of 
 perpendicular architecture be studiously 
 retained; because there is hardly a cathe- 
 dral in England in which such mixture 
 may not be observed: and while the anti- 
 quary only can discover the Saxon and 
 Norman styles from the Gothic of later 
 date, the eye of taste will never be of- 
 fended, except ])y the occasional intro- 
 duction of some Grecian or Roman orna- 
 ments. 
 
 The characters of Greciaji and Gothic 
 architecture are better distinguished by 
 an attention to their general effects, than 
 to the minute parts peculiar to each. It 
 is in architecture as in painting, beauty 
 depends on light and shade, and these in 
 - . buildings are caused by the openings or 
 projections in the surface: if these tend 
 Horizontal to pioducc liorizoutal Hncs, the building 
 G^edaiu ^^'i^ be dccmcd Grecian, however whim- 
 sically the doors or windows may be con- 
 structed: if, on the contrary, the shadows 
 Upright give a prevalence of perpendicular lines, 
 Gothic. ' the general character of the building will 
 be Gothic: this is evident from the large 
 
77 
 
 houses built in Queen Elizabeth's tipne, 
 where Grecian columns arc introduced; 
 nevertheless, we always consider them as 
 Gothic buildings, of which magnificent 
 specimens remain in Longleat and Wool- 
 lerton. 
 
 In Grecian architecture we expect 
 bold cornices, Avindows ranged perfectly 
 on the same line, and that line often more 
 strongly marked by an horizontal facia. 
 But there are few breaks of any great 
 depth; and if there be a portico, the sha- 
 dow made by the columns is very trifling, 
 compared wilh that broad horizontal sha- 
 dow proceeding from the soffit. The only 
 ornament its roof will admit of, is either 
 a flat pediment departing very little from 
 the horizontal tendency, or a dome still 
 rising from an horizontal base. With such Lines of 
 buildings it may often be observed that how best' 
 
 ^ . ^ , . , , contrasted 
 
 trees or a pointed or conic shape have a by Trees, 
 beautiful effect, I believe chiefly from 
 the circumstance of contrast; though an 
 association with the ideas of Italian paint- 
 ings, where mc often see Grecian edifices 
 blended with firs and cypresses, may also 
 
78 
 
 hav.e some influence on the mind. Trees 
 of a conic shape, mixed with Gothic 
 buildings, are less pleasing, from their 
 affinity with the prevalent lines of the 
 ' architecture, which are all perpendicular. 
 The play of light and shadow in Gothic 
 structures proceeds from those bold pro- 
 jections, either of towers or buttresses, 
 which cause strong shadows in a perpen- 
 dicular direction: the hne of cornice is 
 hardly }>erceptible, and the horizontal 
 line of roof is broken into an irregular 
 surface by the pinnacles, turrets, and bat- 
 tlements that form the principal enrich- 
 ment of Gothic architecture. It is for 
 this reason that where the shape of the 
 ground occasionally hides the lower part 
 of the building, while its roof is relieved 
 by trees, whose forms contrast with those 
 of the Gothic outline, as at Donnington, 
 this perpendicular, or Gothic style, is pre- 
 ferable to the horizontal, or Grecian. 
 Conclusion. As this observation is new, and may, 
 perhaps, be thought too fanciful, I made 
 my appeal to the eye by the help of plates 
 (which the nature of this work will not 
 
79 
 
 admit), from which the following general 
 principle seemed fairly to be deduced, 
 viz. that the prevailing lines of Gothic 
 buildings are best contrasted with round 
 headed trees, or, as Milton calls them, 
 tufted trees: 
 
 ' Towers and battlements he sees, > 
 
 Embosom'd high in tufted trees,' 
 
 While, on the contrary, the prevailing 
 lines of the Grecian will accord either 
 with round or conic trees; but, if the 
 base be hid, the contrast of the latter 
 will be most pleasing.' 
 
 The Gothic style of architecture be- Gothic 
 ing the best calculated for additions or best^for 
 repairs to an old house, I have occasionally 
 
 3 Since most of our pleasures may be traced to 
 mixed sources, and are always heightened by tliose of 
 association, I am indebted to a periodical critic for the 
 following remark : " Round-headed trees are more par- 
 "^ ticularly well associated witli tlie Gothic style of archi- 
 " tecture, as they are the only species of trees in this 
 " country at least, that appear coeval with antique struc- 
 '' tures." Perhaps from hence arises part of the dis- 
 gust at seeing modern Gothic buildings, however well 
 designed, surrounded by firs and Lombardy poplars. 
 
80 
 
 ventured to recommend it on the joint 
 principles of utility and economy; to 
 which may be added, that picturesque 
 effect, M'hich is always produced by the 
 mixture of Gothic buildings with round- 
 headed trees. 
 
 Where the external appearance of a 
 house has been objectionable, instead of 
 clogging all the iniprovements with the 
 dread of shewing the house, I have some- 
 times found it possible, without any very 
 great expence, to convert the house itself 
 into the most pleasing object throughout 
 every part of the grounds from whence 
 it is visible.' 
 
 I confess there is much danger in 
 adopting the Gothic, not executed under 
 the direction of architects who have had 
 great experience in that style of building; 
 
 t When Mr. Price originally attacked the art of 
 Landscape Gardening, I was siu-prised to find in his 
 Essay so many of the ideas which I had rhentioned to 
 him in conversation, and particularly the foregoing 
 remarks concerning the prevalent lines in architecture. 
 But in acquiring knowledge, it is natural to remember 
 any new ideas gained, without always recollecting the 
 source from which they were derived. 
 
81 
 
 nor does it always happen that the gen- 
 tlemen who have studied their profession 
 in Italy are competent to the task which 
 belongs to the student and observer of 
 English antiquities. 
 
 However various opinions may be on of the 
 
 Situation 
 
 the choice of a situation for a house, yet foraHouse. 
 there appear to be certain principles on 
 which such choice ought to be founded; 
 and these may be deduced from the fol- 
 lowing; considerations: 
 
 First. The natural character of the 
 surrounding country. 
 
 Secondly. The style, character, and 
 size of the house. 
 
 Thirdly. The aspects or exposure, both 
 with regard to the sun and the prevalent 
 winds of the country. 
 
 Fourthly. The shape of the ground 
 near the house. 
 
 Fifthly. The views from the several 
 apartments; and 
 
 Slvthly. The numerous objects of com- 
 
fort; such as a dry soil, a supply of good 
 water, proper space for offices, with va- 
 rious other conveniences essential to a 
 mansion in the country; and which in a 
 town may sometimes he dispensed with, 
 or at least very differently disposed. 
 
 It is hardly possible to arrange these 
 six considerations according to their re- 
 spective weight or influence; this must 
 depend on a comparison of one with the 
 other, under a variety of circumstances; 
 and even on the partiality of individuals, 
 in affixing different degrees of import- 
 ance to each consideration. Hence it is 
 obvious, that there can be no danger of 
 sameness in any two designs conducted 
 on principles thus established; since in 
 every different situation some one or more 
 of these considerations must preponder- 
 ate; and the most rational decision will 
 result from a combined view of all the 
 separate advantages or disadvantages to 
 be foreseen from each. It was the custom 
 of former times, in the choice of domestic 
 situations, to let comfort and convenience 
 prevail over every other consideration* 
 
83 
 Thus the ancient baronial castles ^vere Bamniai 
 
 , ., , . p 1 MI • • Castles iti 
 
 built on the summits or nills, m times lofty bias. 
 when defence and security suggested the 
 necessity of placing them there; and dif- 
 ficulty of access was a recommendation: 
 but when this necessity no longer existed, 
 (as mankind are always apt to fly from 
 one extreme to the other) houses were 
 universally erected in the lowest situa- 
 tions, with a probable design to avoid 
 those inconveniences to which the lofty 
 positions had been subject : hence the 
 frequent sites of many large mansions, 
 and particularly abbeys and monasteries. Abbeys in 
 the residence of persons who were willing 
 to sacrifice the beauty of prospect for the 
 more solid and permanent advantages of why 
 
 1 1 •, 1 , . . 1 • 1 situiuedlow 
 
 liabitable convenience; amongst which, 
 shelter from wind, and a supply of water 
 for store fish-ponds, were predominant 
 considerations. Nor shall I withhold the 
 foUov/ing conjecture, which I hope will 
 not be considered as a mere sujra'cstion 
 of fancy: — When such buildings were 
 surrounded by trees, for the comfort of 
 shade; might not the occasional want 
 
84 
 
 of circulation in the air have given the 
 first idea of cutting long narrow glades 
 through the woods, to admit a current of 
 wind? And is it not possible that this was 
 the origin of those avenues which we fre- 
 quently see pointing, from every direc- 
 tion, towards the most respectable habi- 
 tations of the two last centuries? 
 Character Bcsidcs the character which the style 
 
 and size of the house will confer on a 
 place, there is a natural character of coun- 
 try which must influence the site and dis- 
 position of a house; and though, in the 
 country, there is not the same occasion as 
 in towns for placing offices under ground, 
 or for setting the principal apartments on 
 a basement story, (it being more desir- 
 able to walk from the house on the same 
 level with the ground, ) yet there are situ- 
 ations which require to be raised above the 
 natural surface. This is the case at Wel- 
 beck, wlierc the park not only abounds 
 with bold and conspicuous inequalities, 
 but in many places there are almost im- 
 perceptible swellings in the ground, which 
 art M^ould in vain attempt to remedy, from 
 
 I 
 
85 
 
 their vast breadth; though they are evi- 
 dent defects, whenever they appear to cut 
 across the stems of trees, and hide only 
 half their trunks; for if the whole trunk 
 were perfectly hid by such a swell, the 
 injury would be less, because the imagi- 
 nation is always ready to sink the valley 
 and raise the hill, if not checked in its 
 efforts by some actual standard of mea- , 
 
 surement. In such cases the best expe- 
 dient is to view the ground from a gentle 
 eminence, that the eye may look over, and 
 of course lose these small inequalities. 
 
 As the improvement at Welbeck, ori- wdbeck. 
 ginally suggested by his Grace the Duke 
 of Portland, has, I confess, far exceeded 
 even my own expectations, I shall take 
 the liberty of drawing some general con- 
 clusions on the subject, from the success 
 of this bold experiment. x\t the time I 
 liad the honour to deliver my former opi- 
 nion, my idea of raising the ground near 
 the house was confined to the west front 
 alone; and, till it had been exemplified 
 and executed, few could comprehend the 
 seeming paradox of burying the bottom 
 
86 
 
 of the house, as the means of elevating 
 the wliole structure; or, as it Mas wittily 
 expressed, "moulding up the roots of the 
 venerable pile, that it might shoot up in 
 fresh towers from its top." 
 
 Shapes of All natural shapes of ground must ne- 
 
 cessarily fall under one of these descrip- 
 tions, viz. contex, concave^ plane, or in- 
 ciuied plane. I will suppose it granted 
 that, except in very romantic situations, 
 all the rooms on the principal floor ought 
 to range on the same level, and that there 
 must be a gentle descent from the house 
 every way. If the ground be naturally 
 
 Convex. couvcx, or what is generally called a knoll, 
 the size of the house nmst be adapted to 
 the size of the knoll: but if abuildino- of 
 three times as long should be required, 
 it is evident that the crown of the hill 
 must be taken off, and then the shape of 
 the ground becomes very different from 
 its original form ; for although the small 
 liouse would have a sufficient platform, 
 the large one will be on the brink of a 
 very steep bank, and this difficulty would 
 be increased by raising the ground to set 
 
87 
 
 the large house on the same level with 
 the smaller one. It therefore follows, 
 that if the house must stand on a natural 
 hillock, the huilding should not he larger 
 than its situation will admit; and where 
 such hillocks do not exist in places pro- 
 per for a house in every other respect, it 
 is sometimes possible for art to supply 
 what nature seems to have denied: but 
 it is not possible in all cases; a circum- 
 stance which proves the absurdity of those 
 architects who design and plan a house, 
 Avithout any previous knowledge of the 
 situation or shape of the ground on which 
 it is to be built. 
 
 When the shape is naturally either concavc 
 concave or perfectly flat, the house would 
 not be habitable, unless the ground sloped 
 sufficiently to drain off the water from it. 
 This is often effected, in a slight degree, 
 merely by the earth that is dug from the 
 cellars and foundations: but if, instead 
 of sinking the cellars, they were to be 
 built upon the level of the ground, they 
 may afterwards be so covered Av^ith earth, 
 as to give all the appearance of a natural 
 
88 
 
 knoll, the ground falling from the house 
 to any distance Avhere it may best unite 
 with the natural shape, or as it frequently 
 happens, that there may be small hillocks, 
 one of them may be removed to effect 
 this purpose." 
 Inclined Tlus expedient can also be used in an 
 
 Plane. . 
 
 inclined plane, falling toward the house, 
 M'here the inclination is not very great : 
 but it may be observed of the inclined 
 plane, that the size of the house must be 
 governed in some measure by the fall of 
 the aground; since it is evident that it 
 would require an artificial terrace on one 
 side; and where the ground cannot be 
 made to look natural, it is better at all 
 times to avow the interference of art, 
 . than to attempt an ineflectual conceal- 
 ment of it. Such situations are peculiarly 
 applicable to the Gothic style, in which 
 horizontal lines are less necessary. 
 A Ricise. I have hitherto supposed the shape of 
 
 the ground as it cuts across in any one 
 
 " As at Donnington, a seat of Earl Moiraj where 
 the house forms a quadrangle, inclosing an inner court , 
 a whole story lower than appears externally. 
 
89 
 
 direction; but another shape is also to 
 be considered: thus it generally happens 
 that a knoll is longer one way than the 
 other, or it may even extend to a natural 
 ridge, of a sufficient length for a long and 
 narrow house; but such a house must be 
 fitted to the ground, since it would be 
 absurd in the architect to place it either 
 diagonally or directly across such a ridge. 
 The same holds good of the inclined plane, 
 which is, in fact, always the 5ide of a val- 
 ley, Avhose general inclination must be 
 consulted in the j)Osition of the building. 
 A square house Mould appear awry, un- 
 less its fronts were made to correspond 
 with the shape of the adjacent ground. 
 
 On a dead flat or plain the principal AHane. 
 apartments ought to be elevated, as the 
 only means of shewing the landscape to 
 advantage. Where there is no inequality 
 it will be very difficult to unite any arti- 
 ficial ground with the natural shape: it 
 will, in this case, be advisable either to 
 raise it only a very few feet, or to set the 
 house on a basement story. But Avhere- 
 ever a park abounds in natural inequali- 
 
90 
 
 ties, even though the ground near the 
 house should be flat, we may boldly ven- 
 ture to create an artificial knoll, as it has 
 been executed at Welbeck." 
 
 Water, 
 
 On high 
 Ground. 
 
 There is something so fascinating in 
 the appearance of water, that Mr. Brown 
 thought it carried its own excuse, how- 
 ever unnatural its situation ; and there- 
 fore in many places under his direction 
 I have found water on the tops of hills, 
 which I have been obliged to remove into 
 lower ground, because the deception was 
 not sufficiently complete to satisfy the 
 mind as well as the eye. 
 
 A common observer supposes that 
 water is usually found, and therefore 
 most natural, in the lowest ground; but 
 
 X A similar treatment was attempted atWoburn: 
 bat as the situations and character of the buildings are 
 totally opposite, I have been obliged to remove the 
 earth from the soutli front of that magnificent palace, 
 and restore it to its natural shape, reserving only 80 
 much as forms an artificial terrace. 
 
91 
 
 a moment's consideration will evince the 
 error of this supposition. Places abound- 
 ing in lakes and pools are generally the 
 highest in their respective countries; and 
 without such a provision of nature the 
 world could not be supplied with rivers, 
 which take their source in the highest 
 mountains, and after innumerable checks 
 to retard and expand their waters, they 
 gradually descend towards the sea. If 
 nature be the model for art in the com- 
 position of Landscape, we must imitate 
 her process, as well as her effects. Water, 
 by its own power of gravitation, seeks 
 the lowest ground, and runs along the 
 valleys.^ If in its course the water meets 
 
 y Indeed I have sometimes fancied, that as action 
 and reaction are ahke, and as cause and effect often 
 change their situations, so valleys are increased in depth 
 by the course of waters perpetually passing along them: 
 thus, if the water only displaces one inch of soil in each 
 year, it will amount to 500 feet in 6000 years; and 
 this is equal to the deepest valleys in the world. In 
 loose soils, the sides of the hiUs will gradually wash 
 down, and form open valleys; in hard soils they will 
 become narrow valleys, but ravines I suppose to be the 
 effect of sudden convulsions from fire or steam, and 
 not made by any gradual abrasion of the surface. 
 
with any obstruction, it spreads itself into 
 a lake or meer proportionate to the mag- 
 nitude of the obstruction: and thus we 
 often see in the most picturesque coun- 
 tries a series of pools connected by chan- 
 nels of the rivers which supply them. 
 From certain points of view these pools, 
 though on different levels, will take the 
 appearance of one continued lake or river, 
 only broken by islands or promontories, 
 covered with brushwood: and from hence 
 Avas taken Mr. Brown's frequent attempt 
 of uniting two pools, which could not be 
 brought together in reality, but which 
 become apparently united by an eifect 
 of perspective, not always attended to in 
 gardening. 
 Perspective, PcFspective, in painting, is known to 
 Linear. ^^ ^^ ^^^^ kiuds; the first is called linear 
 perspective, and is that by which objects 
 appear to diminish in proportion to the 
 distance at which they are viewed: this 
 has indeed been already mentioned, in 
 referring to the use of cattle as a scale of 
 measurement; a horse, a cow, or a sheep, 
 is very nearly of the same size, and with 
 
93 
 
 this size the mind is perfectly acquainted; 
 but trees, bushes, hills, or pools of water, 
 are so various in their dimensions, that 
 we are never able to judge exactly of 
 their size, or at what distance they appear 
 to us. 
 
 The second kind o? perspective is aerial, Aerial. 
 as it depends on the atmosphere; since 
 •we observe that objects not only diminish 
 in their size, but in their distinctness, in 
 proportion to the body of air betwixt the 
 eye and the objects : those nearest are 
 strongly represented, while other parts, 
 as they recede, become less distinct, till 
 at last the outline of a distant hill seems 
 melted into the air itself. Such are the 
 \d.ws of aerial perspective on all objects, but 
 not on all alike; since it is the peculiar 
 property of liglit, and the reflection of 
 light unmixed by colour, to suffer much 
 less by comparison than any other object. 
 It is for this reason that we are so much 
 deceived in the distance of perfectly zvhite 
 objects: the light reflected from a white- 
 washed house makes it appear out of its 
 place; snow, at many miles distance, ap- 
 
k 
 
 Unity of 
 Design. 
 
 94 
 
 peats to be in the next field : indeed, so 
 totally are we unable to judge of light, 
 that a meteor within our atmosphere is 
 sometimes mistaken for a lantern ; at 
 others for a falling star. 
 
 Water, like a mirror, reflecting the 
 light, becomes equally uncertain in its 
 real distance; and, therefore, an apparent 
 union of the two or more pools may often 
 be effected by attending to this circum- 
 stance. 
 
 Unity of design in all compositions is 
 one of the first principles in poetry, paint- 
 ing, or music; and that it prevails also in 
 Landscape Gardening there is no stronger 
 proof than the following fact, viz. the 
 most superficial observer of park scenery 
 will be offended by the view of two sepa- 
 rate pieces of water; and will probably 
 ask, M'ithout considering the difference 
 of levels, why they are not united ? To 
 say it is impossible will neither satisfy 
 the mind nor the eye; but both may be 
 pleased by the help of deception, because 
 our pleasures are oftener excited by ap- 
 pearances than by realities. 
 
9o 
 
 I am awai'e of the common objection Deceptions 
 
 where 
 
 to all efforts that may be deemed decep- allowable. 
 tions; but it is the business of taste in 
 every polite art to avail itself of strata- 
 gems, by which the imagination may be 
 deceived : and thus also in Landscape 
 Gardening, many things may be deemed 
 (leceptio?is, by which we try to conceal the 
 agency of art. We plant the hills to make Deceptions 
 
 where 
 
 them appear higher; we sink the fences necessary. 
 to make the lawns appear larger; we 
 open the banks of a brook to make it ap- 
 pear a river, or stop its current to make 
 an expanse of water: and we disguise 
 terminations to give appearance of con- 
 tinuity; nor is the imagination so fasti- 
 dious as to reject well supported decep- 
 tions, even after the want of reality is 
 discovered. Thus when we are interested 
 by a dramatic performance, and our feel- 
 ings powerfully agitated, we do not en- 
 quire into the truth of what causes our 
 mirth or sorrow; on the contrary, w^e 
 forget that we see a Garrick or a Siddons, 
 and join in the griefs of a Belvidere or a 
 Beverley, though we know that no such 
 
96 
 
 such persons ever existed : it is sufficient 
 if so much as we see bears an exact resem- 
 blance of nature under similar circum- 
 stances. 
 
 In the same manner the magnificent 
 water at Blenheim strikes with wonder 
 and delight, when we neither see its be- 
 ginning nor end. We do not vicM^ it with 
 less pleasure after we are told that it was 
 not originally a natural lake, but that 
 Mr. Brown, stopping the current of a 
 small river, collected this body of water 
 into the splendid shape we admire. 
 
 It has been correctly observed by 
 Mr. Burke, that a " true artist should put 
 " a generous deceit on the spectators, 
 " and effect the noblest designs by easy 
 " methods. Designs that are vast only 
 '' by their dimensions are always the sign 
 " of a common and low imagination. No 
 " work of art can be great, but as it de- 
 /'ceives; to be otherwise is the prero- 
 " gativc of nature only." 
 
97 
 The view from the principal apart- Park 
 
 1111 • Scenery 
 
 ments should bear some proportion to distinct 
 
 . from 
 
 the importance of the house itselt; not 
 so much in the quantity or extent of the 
 prospect, as in the nature of the objects 
 which compose the scenery; an extensive 
 prospect heing only applicable to a castle, 
 a villa, or a belvedere. The landscape 
 from a palace should every where appear 
 appropriate to the magnificence or plea- 
 sure of its inhabitants: the whole should 
 be, or at least appear to be, a park, unli- 
 mited and unconfmed by those lines of 
 division or boundary which characterize 
 the large grass fields of a dairy farm. Yeit 
 a park has a character distinct from a 
 forest; for while we admire, and even imi- Forest 
 
 1 • -1 1 (- Scenery. 
 
 tate, the romantic wildness or nature, we 
 ought never to forget that a park is the 
 habitation of men, and not solely devoted 
 to beasts of the forest. I am convinced 
 that some enthusiastic admirers of uncul- 
 tivated nature are too apt to overlook 
 this distinction. Park scenery, compared 
 with forest scenery, is like an historical 
 picture compared with a landscape; na- 
 
98 
 
 ture must alike prevail in both, but that 
 which relates to man should have a higher 
 place in the scale of arts. 
 
 Woods enriched by buildings, and 
 water enlivened by a number of pleasure 
 boats, alike contribute to mark a visi- 
 ble difference betwixt the magnificent 
 scenery of a park, and that of a seques- 
 tered forest; the trees, the water, the 
 lawns, and the deer, are alike common 
 to both. 
 Gravel Thcrc is auothcr distinction betwixt 
 
 Roads. 
 
 park and forest scenery, on which I shall 
 beg leave to state my opinion, as it has 
 been a topic of some doubt and difficulty 
 amongst the Amateurs of Landscape Gar- 
 dening, viz. Hinv far gravel roads are 
 admissible across the lawns of a park: yet 
 surely very little doubt will remain on 
 this subject, when we consider a park as 
 a place of residence; and reflect on the 
 great inconvenience to which grass roads 
 are continually liable. 
 
 I have endeavoured to discover two 
 reasons which may have given rise to the 
 common technical objection, that a gravel 
 
99 
 
 road cuts up a laxm ; the first arises from 
 tlie defect observed after an avenue has 
 been destroyed, where the straight line 
 of gravel, which formerly was less offen- 
 sive, while accompanied by trees, becomes 
 intolerable when it divides a small lawn 
 directly through the middle. The other 
 arises from the effect which even a wind- 
 ing turnpike road has in destroying the 
 sequestered and solemn dignity of forest 
 scenery: but in a park, a road of conve- 
 nience, and of breadth proportioned to 
 its intention, as an approach to the house 
 for visitors, will often be a circumstance 
 of great beauty; and is a characteristic 
 ornament of art, allowable in the finest 
 inhabited scenes of nature. 
 
 What is often called park scenery is Removins 
 liable to the common defect of all places 
 where hedges have recently been re- 
 moved, and too many single trees left; 
 the natural reluctance felt by every man 
 of taste and experience to cut down large 
 trees, at tiie same time that he sees the 
 unpleasant effect of artificial rows, is very 
 apt to suggest the idea of breaking those 
 
100 
 
 rows, by planting many young trees; and 
 thus the whole composition becomes frit- 
 tered into small parts, neither compatible 
 with the principles of the sublime or the 
 beautiful. The masses of light and shade, 
 whether in a natural landscape or a pic- 
 ture, must be broad and unbroken, or the 
 eye will be distracted by the flutter of the 
 scene; and the mind will be rather em- 
 ployed in retracing the former lines of 
 hedge-rows, than in admiring the ample 
 extent of lawn, and continuity of wood^ 
 which alone distinguish the park'' from 
 tlie grass or dairy farm. 
 Of single Whcrc old hedge -row timber exists 
 
 there can be little occasion for dotting 
 young trees with such profusion; wc of- 
 ten see several hundred such trees scat- 
 
 z There is at present no word by which we express 
 that sort of territory adjacent to a country mansion, 
 which being too large for a garden, too wild for plea- 
 sure ground, and too neat for a farm, is yet denied the 
 name of a park, because it is not fed by deer. I ge- 
 nerally wave this distinction, and call the wood and 
 lawns near every house a park, whether fed by deer, by 
 sheep, or heavy cattle. 
 
 Trees. 
 
101 
 
 tered upon a lawn, where not more than 
 twenty can be absolutely necessary. 
 
 There is another defect common to 
 all countries where the grass land is more 
 generally mowed than fed. It proves 
 what no landscape painter ever doubted, 
 that a scene consisting of vegetable pro- 
 ductions only, can seldom make a pleas- 
 ing picture. The contrasted greens of 
 wood and laM'n are not sufficient to gra- 
 tify the eye; it requires other objects, 
 and those of different colours, such as 
 rocks, water, and cattle; but where these 
 natural objects cannot easily be had, the 
 variety may be obtained by artificial 
 means, such as a building, a tent, or a 
 road ; and, perhaps, there is no object 
 more useful in such countries than a 
 gravel road of a good colour, gracefully 
 winding between, and of course defining 
 those gentle swells of the ground, which 
 are hardly perceptible from the uniform 
 colour of grass land. 
 
 A scene, however beautiful in itself, objects in 
 Avill soon lose its interest, unless it is en- ^^"*"'"- 
 livened by moving objects; and from the 
 
102 
 
 shape of the ground near most houses, 
 
 there is another material use in ],iaving 
 
 Cattle act as cattlc to feed the lawn in view of the 
 
 a Scale. 
 
 windows/ The eye forms a very inaccu- 
 rate judgment of extent, especially in 
 looking down a hill, unless there he some 
 standard by which it can be measured; 
 bushes and trees are of such various sizes, 
 that it is impossible to use them as a mea- 
 sure of distance; but the size of a horse, 
 a sheep, or a cow, varies so little, and is 
 so familiar to us, that we immediately 
 judge of their distance from their appa- 
 rent diminution, according to the dis- 
 tance at which they are placed; and as 
 they occasionally change their situation, 
 
 * It has been objected to the shdes with which I 
 elucidate my proposed alterations, that I generally in- 
 troduce, in the improved view, boats on the water, and 
 cattle on the lawns. To this I answer, that both are 
 real objects of improvement, and give animation to the 
 scene ; indeed it cannot be too often inculcated, that a 
 large lake without boats is a dreary waste of water, and 
 a large lawn without cattle is one of the melancholy 
 appendages of solitary grandeur obsei-vable in the plea- 
 sure-grounds of the past century, and totally incompa- 
 tible with what may be called park scenery. 
 
103 
 
 they break that surface over which the 
 eye passes, without observing it, to the 
 first object it meets to rest upon. 
 
 There being no circumstance in Land- Approaches 
 scape Gardening in which greater change 
 has taken place, or that has excited more 
 difference of opinion, than that relating 
 to approaches; I shall transcribe from 
 the "Sketches and Hints" some remarks 
 on that subject. 
 
 The road by which a stranger is sup- 
 posed to pass through the park or lawn to 
 the house is called an approach ; and there 
 seems the same relation betwixt the ap- 
 proach and the house externally, that 
 there is internally betwixt the hall or 
 entrance and the several apartments to 
 which it leads. If the hall be too large or 
 too small, too mean or too much orna- 
 mented for the style of the house, there 
 is a manifest incongruity in the architec- 
 ture, by which good taste will be offended ; 
 but if the hall be so situated as not to 
 
104 
 
 connect well with the several apartments 
 to which it ought to lead, it will then be 
 defective in point of convenience: so it 
 is with respect to an Approach; it ought 
 to be convenient, interesting, and in strict 
 harmony with the character and situation 
 of the mansion to which it belongs. 
 
 In this country there will I hope for 
 ever exist different orders and degrees 
 in society, which must often depend on 
 the proportion of property either inhe- 
 rited or acquired by difterent individuals; 
 and so long as such distinctions remain, 
 it will be proper that the residence of 
 each be marked by such distinct charac- 
 ters, as may not be easily mistaken. Before 
 the introduction of modern gardening 
 there always existed a marked difference 
 betwixt the residence of the landlord and 
 that of his tenant ; not only in the size and 
 style of the house itself, but in that also 
 of the land immediately adjoining. 
 . . , Theimportance of the mansion was sup- 
 
 Approaches p^^^gj ]jy ^ display of convenience rather 
 than of beauty ; and thus the hall-house (as 
 it was called in many counties), was dis- 
 
105 
 
 tinguished from the neighbouring farms, 
 not by the extent of laMm, or the variety 
 of landscape, but by the quantity of courts 
 surrounded by barns, stables, and offices, 
 through which the approach was made: 
 and as our ancestors thought a certain 
 degree of gloom and confinement neces- 
 sary to greatness, the views from the win- 
 dows were confined by lofty walls, sur- 
 rounding quadrangular courts or kitchen 
 gardens, which being felt as objects of 
 the greatest convenience, were deemed 
 the most proper objects of sight from the 
 principal apartments. This taste in gar- 
 dening continued long after the vaulted 
 kitchen, the buttery-hatch, the carved 
 cellar door, and other marks of hospitable 
 splendour, had been banished by modern 
 improvements in architecture. It is now 
 acknowledged that gloom is not neces- 
 sary to magnificence; that liberty is not 
 incompatible with greatness ; and that 
 convenience is not the sole object of or- 
 nament; for though such things as are 
 useful may sometimes be ornamental, it 
 does not follow, that ornaments must 
 
106 '^ 
 
 Ornaments alwavs bc uscful ; Oil tlic Contrary, many 
 Hscful"^^^^ of those productions of the poHte arts 
 which are most admired, are now merely 
 considered as ornaments, Mdthout any 
 reference to their original uses. This is 
 confessedly the case with works of paint- 
 ing and sculpture (except in that inferior 
 branch of each which relates to portraits); 
 for whatever might be the original uses 
 of pictures or statues, they are now only 
 considered as ornaments, which by their 
 number and excellence distinguish the 
 taste, the wealth, and dignity of their 
 possessors. To use these internal marks 
 of distinction only might be prudent in 
 those countries where it would be dan- 
 gerous to display any external ornaments 
 of grandeur: but rank and affluence are 
 not crimes in England; on the contrary, 
 we expect to see a marked difference in 
 the style, the equipage, and the mansions 
 of wealthy individuals; and this difference 
 must also be extended to the grounds in 
 the neighbourhood of their mansions; 
 since congruity of style and unity of cha- 
 racter are amongst the first principles of 
 
107 
 
 of good taste; which seems to justify 
 some disphiy of the beauty, if not of the 
 tlie extent, in modern approaches. 
 
 There is as much absurdity in carry- 
 ing an approach round, to include those 
 objects which do not naturally fall within 
 its reach, as there was formerly in cutting 
 through a hill to obtain a straight line, 
 pointing to the hall door. A line of red 
 gravel across a lawn is apt to offend, 
 by cutting it into parts, and destroying 
 the unity of verdure, so pleasing to the 
 eye; but in some places the aversion of 
 shewing a road is carried to such an ex- 
 treme, that a gap has been dug in the 
 lawn by way of road, and in order to 
 hide it, the approach to a palace must be 
 made along a ditch. In other places I have 
 seen what is called a grass approach,\\\\\c\\ 
 is a broad hard road thinly covered with 
 bad verdure, or even moss, to hide it from 
 the sight; and thus in a dusky evening, 
 after wandering about the park in search 
 of a road, we suddenly find ourselves upon 
 srrass at the door of the mansion, without 
 any appearance of mortals ever having 
 
defined. 
 
 108 
 
 before approached its solitary entrance. 
 Thus do improvers seem to have mistaken 
 the most obvious meaning of an approach, 
 Approach which is slmply this, — A Road to the 
 House. If that road be greatly circuit- 
 ous, no one will use it when a much nearer 
 is discovered ; but if there be two roads 
 of nearly the same length, and one be 
 more beautiful than the other, the man 
 of taste will certainly prefer it, while per- 
 haps the clown, insensible to every ob- 
 ject around him, will indifferently use 
 either. The requisites to a good approach 
 may be thus enumerated: 
 
 First J An approach ought to be a road 
 to the house, and to that principally. 
 
 Secondly, If it is not naturally the 
 nearest road possible, it ought artificially 
 to be made impossible to go a nearer. 
 
 Thirdly^ The artificial obstacles which 
 make this road the nearest ought to ap- 
 pear natural. 
 
 Fourthly, Where an approach quits 
 the high road, it ought not to break from 
 it at right angles, or in such a manner 
 as robs the entrance of importance, but 
 
109 
 
 rather at some bend of the public road, 
 from wlience a lodge or gate may be more 
 conspicuous; and where tlie higli road 
 may appear to branch from the approach, 
 ratlier than the approach from the high 
 road. 
 
 Fifthly, After the approach enters the 
 park, it should avoid skirting along its 
 boundary, which betrays the want of ex- 
 tent or unity of property. 
 
 Sivthly, The house, unless very large 
 and magnificent, should not be seen at so 
 great a distance as to make it appear much 
 less than it really is. 
 
 Seventhly, The first view of the house 
 should be from the most pleasing point of 
 sight. 
 
 Eighthly, As soon as the house is visi- 
 ble from the approach, there should be 
 no temptation to quit it (which will ever 
 be the case, if the road be at all circuit- 
 ous), unless sufticient obstacles, such as 
 water or inaccessible ground, appear to 
 justify its course. 
 
 In the affected rage for following na- strange 
 
 ° Absurdities 
 
 ture, as it is called, persons of acknow- 
 
110 
 
 ledgetl good sense and good taste have 
 been misled into the strangest absurdi- 
 ties. Thus forgetting that a road is an 
 artificial work of convenience, and not a 
 natural production : it has at one time 
 been displayed as the most ostentatious 
 feature through the centre of a park, in 
 the serpentine line described by the track 
 of sheep ; and at another, concealed be- 
 tween tM'o hedges, or in a deep chasm 
 between two banks, lest it should be dis- 
 covered: and such, alas! is the blindness 
 of system, that in a place where several 
 roads are brought together (like the 
 streets at the Seven Dials), within two 
 hundred yards of the hall door a direc- 
 tion-post is placed as necessary to point 
 out the way to the house.'' 
 Of Rri<i?es ^ '^ad is as much an artificial work as 
 a house or a bridge: indeed a bridae is 
 only a road across such a chasm as cannot 
 be passed without one. There are indeed 
 two uses of a bridge; the first to pass 
 
 '' This example oi practical taste is taken from the 
 approach to the picturesque mansion of the Author of 
 the " Enquiry into the Principles of Taste " 
 
 as Roads. 
 
Ill 
 
 over, the second to pass under: the first 
 is always necessary, the second only oc- 
 casionally so, as where the water under it 
 is navigable: yet, self-evident as this fact 
 may appear, bridges are often raised so 
 high, as to make the passage over them 
 difficult and dangerous, when no passage 
 under them is required; and perhaps a 
 form of bridge, adapted to the purposes 
 of passing over, which may unite strength 
 with grace, or use with beauty, is a desi- 
 deratum in architecture; for this purpose 
 I have suggested for several places, what 
 may more properly be called a Viaducty 
 than a bridge, of which no idea can be 
 given by description only. 
 
 The width of a road must depend on Form of 
 
 Roads. 
 
 its uses: if much frequented, there should 
 be always room for two carriages to pass 
 on the gravel: if little frequented, the 
 gravel may be narrower, but there must 
 be more room left on each side; yet we 
 often see the broadest verges of grass to 
 the broadest roads, where in strict pro- 
 priety the breadth should be in an inverse 
 ratio. 
 
112 
 
 If the gravel be wider than the traf- 
 fick upon it requires, so much more labour 
 •will be necessary to preserve it neatly: 
 yet it can never be right to put gravel in 
 recesses, that no horse or carriage can 
 possibly reach. If a corner projects too 
 far into the road, the driver will certainly 
 go over it, unless prevented by some 
 obstacle ; yet it never can be right to 
 endanger the safety by unnecessary ob- 
 stacles.'' 
 Park The courts or garden-gates through 
 
 which old mansions were approached pre- 
 vented the intrusion of improper persons, 
 who were stopped by the porter of the 
 gate: but since it has become a fashion 
 to remove these, and to place the house 
 a naked, solitary, and isolated object, in 
 
 c However obvious and self-evident this may ap- 
 pear when pointed out, yet such is the slowness in the 
 progress of improvement, that a witty author observes, 
 " Although spoons have been in use two thousand years, 
 " yet it is only within our own memory that the han- 
 " dies have been turned the right way." In like man- 
 ner, although streets have existed in London from time 
 immemorial, yet it is within every body's memory that 
 the corners were first begun to be rounded off. 
 
115 
 
 the middle of a large park or grass field, 
 it is become necessary to remove the 
 porter to the entrance of the park ; and 
 this is the origin of all that bad taste so 
 often displayed in the entrance of parks. 
 In some places it is a triumphal arch. Ridiculous 
 
 Park 
 
 like a large hole in a wall; in another it Lodges. 
 is a wooden gate between two lofty piers, 
 attached to a rough park pale: but the 
 most common expedient is a pair of small 
 square boxes on each side of the gate, 
 making together one comfortless smoky 
 house of two rooms, separated by a gate 
 into the park. It is the gate, and not 
 the habitation of the man who keeps the 
 key, which requires to be marked with 
 importance; and if distinguished by ar- 
 chitectural embellishments, they should 
 partake of the style of the house, and an- 
 nounce its character: where (as at Stone- 
 lands) the entrance is the most obvious in 
 point of convenience, and is rather to 
 shew the beauties of situation than the 
 character of the place. A woodman's cot- 
 tage near the gate is qnite sufficient; and 
 if such a cottage is built in the style and 
 I 
 
114 
 
 date of the old cottages on the borders of 
 a forest, it will less betray the innovation 
 of modern improvement. It is not by a 
 pointed arch to the door, or a sham Gothic 
 window, that such style is to be imitated, 
 but by a nice observance of the costume, 
 forms, and construction of such buildings, 
 as actually existed in the days of Queen 
 EHzabeth, from which the smallest devi- 
 ation will betray the attempt to deceive: 
 the deception, if complete, is allowable, 
 since it is the " business of art to deceive;" 
 but the spruce or clumsy effort, that is 
 sure to betray, is also sure to be ridicu- 
 lous — " The attempt, and not the deed, 
 confounds." 
 
 , ,.. , 
 
 >\' 
 
 , t^ 
 
PART III. 
 
 If Taste in the Fine Arts be under the Fashion 
 
 is not to be 
 
 influence of fashion, it may perhaps be comrouied, 
 supposed that fashion may be influenced 
 by the professors of the fine arts; but 
 this has seldom been the case, except in 
 some very extraordinary discovery of 
 novelty. Fashion is neither to be di- 
 rectly opposed nor imperiously guided, 
 either by the theory of authors, or the 
 practice of professors. I have occasion- 
 ally ventured to deliver my opinion freely 
 in theory, but in my practice I have often 
 feared to give offence, by opposing the 
 taste of others, since it is equally danger- 
 ous to doubt a man's taste as his under- 
 standing; especially as those who possess 
 least of either are generally the most 
 jealous of the little they possess. 
 
 In addition to these difficulties, I have 
 had to contend with the opposition of 
 stewards, the presumption or ignorance of 
 
116 
 
 gardeners, and the jealousy of architects 
 and builders; yet my Practice has been 
 supported by the first characters in the 
 kingdom ; but my Theory has been con- 
 founded with that of Brown and his follow- 
 ers, although by my writings I thought 
 the difference had been fully explained. 
 
 The elegant and gentlemanlike man- 
 ner in which Mr. Price has examined my 
 opinions, and explained his o^\^^, left no 
 room for further controversy ; and it 
 might reasonably have been supposed the 
 subject had been dropped : but I find 
 myself again personally (though not by 
 name) called upon to defend the Art of 
 Landscape Gardening from the attacks 
 of a late work published under the title 
 of "An analytical Enquiry into the Prin- 
 '' ciples of Taste, by R, P. Knight, Esq." 
 Author of the "Landscape," a poem, and 
 other insrenious works: it is full of allu- 
 sions to Landscape Gardening, without 
 taking any notice of those opinions de- 
 livered to the world in my two works 
 on that subject; and which, from their 
 scarcity and costliness of the plates, will 
 
117 
 
 probably be less read than the volume 
 Avhich now calls for my notice. 
 
 In perusing these works, the candid {^PV^^.^^° 
 
 •^ o ' MrKnight's 
 
 reader will perhaps discover that there is Enquiry. 
 no real difference between us; but in con- 
 tending with an adversary of such nice 
 discernment, such deep investigation, 
 and such ingenious powers of expression, 
 it is difficult to say how far we are actu- 
 ally of the same opinion. I thought I 
 could discover a shade of difference be- 
 tween the opinions of Mr. Knight and 
 Mr. Price, although the world confounded 
 them as joint and equal adversaries to the 
 art of Modern Gardening. We are now 
 told that in both his volumes " his friend 
 " (Mr. Price) equally mistakes ideas for 
 *' things and the effect of internal sym- 
 " pathy for those of external circum- 
 " stances, and thence grounds the best 
 " practical lessons of taste upon false prin- 
 " ciples and false philosophy." Under 
 such severity of criticism both Mr. Price 
 and I may console ourselves in our mis- 
 takes from the following remark : '* When 
 '' Montesquieu and Burke thus differ upon 
 
lis 
 
 " 2L subject of common sense and feeling, which 
 '' each had made the particilar object of his in- 
 " vestigation, who shall hop^. to escape error in 
 *' any theoretical enquiry?" 
 
 Whatever trifling differences may still exist 
 in our theories, it is no small satisfaction to me 
 to discover that many of m} opinions have been 
 confirmed, and many of m} thoughts repeated, 
 although new clothed, or disguised in other words, 
 by Mf. Knight, especially tlx)se on the subject of 
 Gothic Architecture, "^ on tl e absurdity of con- 
 
 •* Observations, p. 207. 
 
 " Whether we take our models 
 from a Grecian Temple, or from 
 a Gothic Ahhey, from a Castle, 
 or from a College, if the build- 
 ing does not look like a house, 
 and the residence of a nobleman, 
 it will be out of character. It 
 may perhaps be objected, that 
 we must exactly follow the mo- 
 dels of the style or date we pro- 
 fess to imitate, or else we make 
 apasticio or confusion of discord- 
 ant parts. Shall we imitate the 
 thing, and forget its applica- 
 tion? — No 3 let us rather, &c. 
 
 Let us, in short, never 
 
 forget that we are building a 
 house, whether we imitate the 
 
 ENauiRY, p. 179- 
 
 ' GrecianTemples, Gothic Al- 
 hies, and feudal Castles, were all 
 well adapted to their respective 
 uses, circumstances, and situa- 
 tions . the distribution of the 
 parts subservient to the purposes 
 of the whole, and the ornaments 
 and decorations suited to the 
 character of the parts: and to 
 the manners, habits, and em- 
 ployments of the persons who 
 were to occupy them : but the 
 house of an English nobleman 
 of the eighteenth or nineteenth 
 century is neither a Grecian 
 Temple, a Gothic Abbey, nor 
 a feudal Castle j and if tlie style 
 of distribution or decoration of 
 
119 
 
 cealinof the offices to a house,^ and on the use of 
 
 bold irregular outline of an an- 
 cient Castlcj the elegant forms 
 and tracery of a Gothic Abbey, 
 or the harmony of proportions 
 and symmetrical beauty of a 
 Grecian Temple." 
 
 « Observations^ p. 173. 
 
 After describing six differ- 
 ent forms of houses and offices 
 at different dates, of which the 
 fifth and sixth had wings, " the 
 seventh and last invented con- 
 sists of a compact square house, 
 with three fronts, and to the 
 back of it are attached offices, 
 forming a very long range of 
 buildings, courts, walls, &c. all 
 supposed to be hid by planta- 
 tion. Such is the horror of see- 
 ing the offices, tliat in one in- 
 stance I was desired by the archi- 
 tect to plant trees on the earth 
 which had been brought and 
 laid on the copper roof with 
 which the kitchen offices had 
 been covered for that purpose!" 
 
 either be employed in it, such 
 changes and modifications should 
 be admitted, as may adapt it to 
 existing circumstances; other- 
 wise the scale of its exactitude 
 becomes that of its incongruity, 
 and the deviation from principle 
 proportioned to the fidelity of 
 imitation." 
 
 Enouiry, p. 214. 
 
 " The practice, which was so 
 prevalent in the beginning of 
 this century, of placing the man- 
 sion-honse between two corre- 
 spondent wings, in which were 
 contained the offices, has of late 
 fallen into disuse ; and one still 
 more adverse to composition has 
 succeeded ; namely, tliat of en- 
 tirely hidhig offices behind 
 masses of plantation, and leav- 
 ing the wretched, square soli- 
 tary mansion-house to exhibit 
 
 its pert bald front, &c. &c 
 
 (The offices) are often concealed 
 in recesses or behind mounds, 
 the improver generally picking 
 out the most retired, intricate 
 and beautiful spot that can be 
 found near the house to bury 
 them in." 
 
120 
 
 Terraces,' and particularly on the neatness near 
 a house, in which he very strongly expresses my 
 sentiments in these words : " Immediately ad- 
 " joining the dwellings of opulence and luxury, 
 " every thing should assume its character, and 
 " not only be, but appear to be, dressed and cul- 
 " tivated. In such situations neat gravel walks, 
 *' mown turf, and flowering plants and shrubs 
 *' trained and distributed by art are perfectly in 
 " character."^ 
 
 This I apprehend is the result of an experi- 
 ment made by the author near his own mansion, 
 where large fragments of stone were irregularly 
 thrown amongst briers and weeds, to imitate the 
 foreground of a picture. Can any thing more 
 
 ^ Observations, p. bQ. 133. ENauiRY, p. 215. 
 
 179. 182. Ib6. "The author recommends 
 " Various examples are given "^ the hanging terraces of the 
 of terraces in the front of houses ItaUan Gardens". . .as they not 
 as forming a basement for the only enrich the foregrouiidj but 
 house to stand upon^ which at serve as a basement for the house 
 once gives it importance, and to stand upon, which at once 
 suppHes it with accompaui- gives it importance, and sup- 
 ments. . . . these, it may be sup- pHes it with accompaniments, 
 posed, were the source of that Such decorations are indeed now 
 prophetic remark concerning an- rather old fashioned j but an- 
 other revolution in taste at no other revolution in taste, which 
 great distance." is probably at no great distance, 
 
 will make them new again," 
 
121 
 
 strongly prove, that a landscape in na- 
 ture and a landscape in a picture are very 
 different things: and that Landscape 
 Gardening is not Picture Garden- 
 ing? This I may fairly give as my an- 
 swer to page 214, M'hich I cannot but 
 suppose directed to me. " Why this art 
 '' has been called Landscape Gardening 
 " perhaps he, who gave it the title, may 
 " explain. I can see no reason, unless it 
 *' be the efficacy which it has shewn in 
 '' destroying Landscapes, in which indeed 
 " it seems to be infallible: not one^ com- 
 
 E To avoid the imputation of vanity, I could wish 
 that the following fact were stated by any other person 
 
 than myself. In the course of my practice 
 
 3000 different sketches or views are now extant in 
 private MSS. from these I published 15 plates 
 in my first work, consisting of 250 copies j 
 
 therefore of these 
 
 3750 impressions are in circulation. 
 
 Also 35 plates were published in my second 
 work, which in the two editions amounted to 
 26,250 impressions in circulation. 
 
 To these may be added, that during the 
 last 18 years I have given 13 designs to an an- 
 nual work, making 234 views, trom each of 
 which i am informed 70OO impressions have 
 
 been made, and of course 
 
 J,638jOOO impressions are in circulation. 
 
122 
 
 '' plete painter's composition being, I 
 " believe, to be found in any of the nu- 
 " merous, and many of them beautiful 
 " and picturesque spots, which it has vi- 
 " sited in different parts of the island." 
 
 Difference 
 
 between 
 
 Painting 
 
 and 
 
 Gardenine. 
 
 The greatest objection to Landscape 
 Gardening seems to arise from not making 
 the proper distinction between Painting 
 and Gardening. The difference bewixt 
 a scene in nature, and a picture on can- 
 vas, arises from the following considera- 
 tions. 
 
 First, The spot from whence the view 
 is taken is in a fixed state to the painter; 
 but the gardener surveys his scenery Avhile 
 in motion ; and from different windows in 
 the same front he sees objects in different 
 situations; therefore, to give an accurate 
 portrait of the gardener's improvement, 
 would require pictures from each sepa- 
 rate window, and even a diiferent draw- 
 
 When this number is compared with the above as- 
 sertioHj that not one Landscape has escaped the fatal ef- 
 fects of the art I profess to cultivate and defend, it must 
 prove, from the numerous purchasers and admirers of 
 these things, that " de gustibus non disputandum." 
 
123 
 
 ing at the most trifling change of situa- 
 tion, either in the approach, the walks, 
 or the drives about each place. 
 
 Secondly^ The quantity of view, or 
 field of vision in nature, is much greater 
 than any picture M^ill admit. 
 
 Thirdly^ The view from an eminence 
 down a steep hill is not to be represented 
 in painting, although it is often one of 
 the most pleasing circumstances of na- 
 tural landscape. 
 
 Fourthly, The light which the painter 
 may bring from any point of the compass 
 must, in real scener}^, depend on the time 
 of day. It must also be remembered that 
 the light of a picture can only be made 
 strong by contrast of shade; while in 
 nature every object may be strongly il- 
 lumined, without destroying the compo- 
 sition, or disturbing the keeping. And 
 
 Lastly, The foreground, which, by 
 framing the view, is absolutely necessary 
 to the picture, is often totally deficient, 
 or seldom such as a painter chooses to 
 represent; since the neat gravel-walk, or 
 close mown lawn, would ill supply the 
 
124 
 
 place, in painting, of a rotten tree, a 
 bunch of docks, or a broken road, pass- 
 ing under a steep bank, covered with 
 briers, nettles, and ragged thorns. 
 
 Planting a There is no part of Landscape Gar- 
 
 Down. _ ^ ^ 
 
 dening more difficult to reconcile to any 
 
 principles of Landscape Painting than the 
 form of plantations to clothe a naked 
 down. If the ground could be spared, 
 perhaps the best mode would be to plant 
 the whole, and afterwards cut it into 
 shape: it might then be considered as a 
 wood interspersed with lawns; and this 
 must be far more pleasing to the eye than 
 a lawn patched with wood, or rather dotted 
 with clumps, for it is impossible to con- 
 sider them as woods, or groups of trees, 
 while so young, as to require fences. The 
 effect of light and shade is not from the 
 trees, but from the lines of posts and rails, 
 or the situation of boxes and cradles with 
 which they are surrounded ; and these 
 being works of art, they must appear arti- 
 ficial, whether the lines be straight or 
 curved. Although much has been said 
 and written about the sweeping lines of 
 
125 
 
 wood following the natural shapes of the 
 ground: the affectation of such lines is 
 often more offensive than a straight line, 
 which is always the shortest, generally 
 the easiest to disguise, and very often 
 appears curved, and even crooked, from 
 crossing uneven ground. '' The sweeping- 
 lines of art, when applied to nature, be- 
 come ridiculous, because they are liable 
 to be compared with works of art, and 
 not of nature. ' 
 
 I have often wished it were possible 
 by any art to produce the outline of 
 Stokenchurch Hill, as seen in the road 
 from Oxford to London ; but this is a 
 forest partially cleared of wood by time 
 and accident: in vain will any new place 
 assume the same degree of respectability; 
 
 ^ The strongest example of this fact may be taken 
 from a view of large tracts of open country recently in- 
 closed, where the lines of hedges are often drawn on 
 tlie map by the commissioners at right angles, and the 
 fields exactly square : but from tine occasional inequality 
 of surface they generally appear diversified, and each 
 square field takes a different shape in appearance, al- 
 though on the map they may be exactly similar. 
 
126 
 
 it is as impossible to produce the same 
 effect by new plantations, as to produce 
 immediately the far-spreading beech or 
 majestic oak, now become venerable by 
 the lapse of centuries. Every man who 
 possesses land and money may, in a few 
 years, have young plantations and covers 
 for game of many acres in extent ; but 
 no cost can produce immediate forest 
 scenery, or purchase the effect of such 
 hedge-row trees, as are too frequently 
 overlooked and buried among firs and 
 larches and faggot wood, to accomplish 
 the exact monotonous serpentine of a 
 modern belt. 
 Heal ^^^^ landscape, or that which my art 
 
 Landscape. pj-Qf^gges to improvc, is not always ca- 
 pable of being represented on paper or 
 canvas; for although the rules for good 
 natural landscape may be found in the 
 best painter's works, in which 
 
 <' , we ne'er shall find 
 
 Dull uniformity, contrivance quaint. 
 Or labour'd littleness ; but contrasts broad. 
 And careless lines, whose undulating forms 
 Play through tlie varied canvasj" mason. 
 
127 
 
 yet Monsieur Gerardin ' is greatly mis- 
 taken, when he directs that no scene in 
 nature should be attempted, till it has 
 first been painted: and 1 apprehend the 
 cause of his mistake to be this: — In an 
 artificial landscape, the foreground is the 
 most important object; indeed some of 
 the most beautiful pictures of Claude de 
 Lorraine consist of a dark foreground, 
 with a very small opening to distant coun- 
 try: but this ought not to be copied in 
 the principal view from the windows of a 
 large house, because it can only have its 
 effect from one window out of many, and, 
 consequently, the others must all be sa- 
 crificed to this sole object. In a picture, 
 the eye is confined within certain limits, 
 and unity is preserved by artificial means, 
 incapable of being applied to real land- 
 scape, in all the extent which Mons. Ge- 
 rardin recommends. 
 
 "' Gerardin Visconte d' Emernonville sur le Paysage, 
 A work containing many just observations, but often 
 mixed with whimsical conceits, and impracticable theo- 
 ries of gardening. 
 
128 
 
 A I^inter's 
 Landscape. 
 
 Landscape 
 Painter. 
 
 Landscape 
 Gardener. 
 
 A picture, or painter's landscape, con- 
 sists of two, three, or more, well marked 
 distances, each separated from the other 
 by an unseen space, which the imagination 
 delights to fill up with fancied beauties, 
 such as may not perhaps exist in reality. 
 
 " Of nature's various scenes, the painter culls 
 That for his favourite theme, where the fair whole 
 Is broken into ample parts, and bold j 
 Where to the eye, three well marked distances 
 Spread their peculiar colouring." mason. 
 
 Here ]\Ir. Mason supposes an affinity be- 
 tween painting and gardening, which will 
 be found, on a more minute examination, 
 not strictly to exist. 
 
 The landscape painter considers all 
 these three distances as objects equally 
 within the power of art; but his composi- 
 tion must have a foreground; and though 
 it may only consist of a single tree, a rail, 
 or a piece of broken road, it is absolutely 
 necessary to the painter's landscape. 
 
 The subjects of the landscape gardener 
 are very different, though his scenery re- 
 quires also to be broken into distinct parts 
 
129 
 
 or distances, because the eye is never long 
 delighted, unless the imagination has some 
 share in its pleasure : an intricacy and en- 
 tanglement of parts heightens the satis- 
 faction. 
 
 The landscape gardener may also di- 
 vide his Scenery into three distinct dis- 
 tances, but very different from those of 
 the painter. The Jirst includes that part 
 of the scene which it is in his power to 
 improve; the second, that which it is not 
 in his power to prevent being injured; 
 and the third, that which it is not in the 
 power of himself, or any other, either to 
 injure or improve : of this last kind is the 
 distant line of the horizon in many views. 
 The part which the painter calls his mid- 
 dle distance is often that which the land- 
 scape gardener finds under the control of 
 others; and the foreground of the painter 
 can seldom be introduced into the com- 
 position of the gardener's landscape, from 
 the whole front of a house; because the 
 best landscapes of Claude will be found 
 to owe their beauty to that kind of fore- 
 ground which could only be applied to 
 
130 
 
 one particular window, and would exclude 
 all view from that adjoining. 
 
 Having frequently been asked whe- 
 ther my drawings were made upon such 
 a scale as not to deceive, I shall take this 
 opportunity of answering that question, 
 by discussing its possibility. 
 A Scale, Dr. Burgh, in his Commentary on 
 
 how far 
 
 possible. Mason, says, '' that a rural scene in rc- 
 " aliti/, and a rural scene upon canvas^ are 
 " not precisely one and the same things is a 
 " self-evident proposition:'' and Mr. Gilpin 
 has very ingeniously shewn, that " a pic- 
 
 \ '' ture can hardly be an exact imitation 
 
 " of nature, without producing disgust as 
 '* a picture;" but the question, whether 
 landscape is reducible to a scale, can only 
 ])roceed from a total inexperience of the 
 art of painting. A scale can only be ap- 
 plied to a diagram, representing parts on 
 the same plane, whether horizontal, as in 
 a map, or perpendicular, as in the eleva- 
 tion of a building; but even in these cases 
 the scale is erroneous, if the surface of the 
 ground plot be uneven; or if the eleva- 
 tion presents parts in perspective: how 
 
131 
 
 then shall any scale be applied to a land- 
 scape which presents parts innumerable, 
 and those at various distances from the 
 eye? My sketches, therefore, do not at- 
 tempt to describe the minutiae of a scene, 
 but the general effects; and all the accu- 
 racy of portraiture to M'hich they pre- 
 tend is the representation of objects as 
 they appear to the eye, and never to insert 
 those that do not exist, although they 
 cannot represent all that do.* 
 
 The enthusiasm for picturesque effect Answer to 
 
 * ^ MrKnight'3 
 
 seems to have so completely bewildered " ^and- 
 
 *■ *' scape. 
 
 the author of The Landscape, a poem, that 
 he not only mistakes the essential differ- 
 ence between the landscape painter and 
 the landscape gardener, but appears even 
 
 i Since so much depends on the relative propor- 
 tions or apparent dimensions of objects at different dis- 
 tances, it becomes necessary for the landscape gardener 
 to ascertain with great precision the exact scale of his 
 proposed improvements, for which there is no better 
 expedient than to place men with long staffs or poles of 
 equal height at different stations, while he sketches the 
 scene before him. The use of this is particularly de- 
 monstrated by the plate at p. g in the " Observations, 
 &c." but cannot be so well explained by mere words. 
 
132 
 
 to forget that a dwelling-house is an ob- 
 ject of comfort and convenience, for the 
 purposes of habitation; and not merely 
 the frame to a landscape, or the fore- 
 ground of a rural picture. The want of 
 duly considering the affinity between 
 painting and gardening is the source of 
 those errors and false principles, which 1 
 find too frequently prevailing in the ad- 
 mirers of, or connoisseurs in, painting; 
 and I do not hesitate to acknowledge, 
 that I once supposed the two arts to be 
 more intimately connected than my prac- 
 tice and experience have since confirmed. 
 
 I am not less an admirer of those 
 scenes which painting represents; but uti- 
 lity must often take the lead of beauty; 
 and convenience be preferred to picturesque 
 effect, in the neighbourhood of man's ha- 
 bitation. J 
 
 There are picturesque objects to be 
 visited with admiration, and protected 
 amidst all their wild and native charms; 
 but they are situations ill adapted to the 
 residence of man. " The quarry long neg- 
 lected'' may supply an appropriate home 
 
 j This is now allowed by Mr. K. see p, 120. 
 
133 
 
 for swallows and martins; " the moulder- 
 ing abbey'' for ravens and jackdaws;" the 
 ^^ ruined castle'' for bats and owls; and 
 the ''antiquated cot," whose chimney is 
 choked up with ivy, may perhaps yield a 
 residence for squalid misery and want: 
 but is affluence to be denied a suitable 
 habitation, because 
 
 " Harsh and cold the builder's work appears. 
 Till soften'd down by long revolving years; 
 Till time and weather have conjointly spread 
 Their mould'n'ng hues and mosses o'er its head?" 
 
 THE LANDSCAPE. 
 
 or because, in some M'ild and romantic 
 scenery, the appearance of art would of- 
 fend the eye of taste, are we to banish all 
 convenience from close mown grass, or 
 firm gravel walks, and to bear M'ith weeds, 
 and briers, and docks, and thistles, in com- 
 pliment to the slovenly mountain nymphsj 
 who exclaim with this author, 
 
 "" Break their fell scythes, that would these beauties 
 shave. 
 And sink their iron rollers in the wave?" 
 
 And again, in the bitterness of prejudice 
 against all that is neat and cleanly, 
 
** Curse on the shrubbery's insipid scenes 
 Of tawdry fringe, encu-cling vapid greens!" 
 
 By those who do not know the author's 
 situation in life, such a curse may perhaps 
 be attributed to the same spirit of discon- 
 tent, which laments that 
 
 " Vain is the pomp of wealth, its splendid halls. 
 And vaulted roofs, sustain'd by marble walls j'* 
 
 but it is evident to me, that the only 
 source of disgust excited in this gentle- 
 man's mind, on viewing the scenes im- 
 proved by Mr. Brown, proceeds from their 
 not being fit objects for representation 
 by the pencil. The painter turns with 
 indignation from the trim mown grass, 
 and swept gravel walk; but the gardener, 
 who knows his duty, w'lW remove such 
 unsightly weeds as offend the view from 
 a drawing-room window, although per- 
 fectly in harmony with the savage pride 
 and dignity of the forest; 
 
 ** Where every shaggy shrub, and spreading tree. 
 Proclaims the seat of native liberty." 
 
 It would have been far more grateful 
 
155 
 
 to my feelings and inclination to have 
 pointed out those passages in which I 
 concur with the author of The Landscape; 
 but I am compelled by the duties of my 
 profession to notice those parts only which 
 tend to vitiate the taste of the nation, by 
 introducing false principles; by recom- 
 mending negligence for ease, and slo- 
 venly M^eeds for native beauty. Extremes 
 are equally to be avoided; and I trust 
 that the taste of this country will neither 
 insipidly slide into the trammels of that 
 smooth shaven " genius of the bare and 
 bald," which he so justly ridicules; nor 
 enlist under the banners of that shaggy 
 and harsh-featured spirit, which knows 
 no delight but in the scenes of Salvator 
 Rosa; scenes of horror, well calculated 
 for the residence of banditti, 
 
 " Breathing bloody calamity, and strife," 
 
 Thus have I been led to consider the 
 theory'' of this ingenious author, or rather 
 
 •* In Mr. Knight's work there are two etchings from 
 the masterly pencil of Mr. Heme, which, though in- 
 tended as examples of good and bad taste, serve rather 
 
136 
 
 to analyze and examine what he deems 
 
 " Harmless dinigs, roll'd in a gilded pill," 
 
 lest the subtle poison they contain should 
 not only influence the art of gardening, 
 but insinuate itself into the other polite 
 arts. In Sculp/ure,\vt ought to admire the 
 gTaces of the Venus de Medicis, as well as 
 
 to exemplify bad taste in the two extremes of artificial 
 neatness and wild neglect. I can hardly suppose any 
 humble follower of Brown, or any admirer of the " bare 
 and bald, to shave, and smooth, and serpentine," a 
 scene like this caricature of modern improvement; nor 
 would any architect of common taste, suggest such a 
 house, instead of the venerable pile in the other draw- 
 ing. At the same time there is a concomitant absurdity 
 in the other view, unless we are to consider it as the 
 forsaken mansion of a noble family gone to decay: for 
 if it be allowable to approach the house by any road, 
 and if that road must cross the river, there are archi- 
 tects in this country, who would suggest designs for a 
 brido^e in unison with the situation, without either copy- 
 ing fantastic Chinese models, or the no less fantastic 
 wooden bridge here introduced, which, though per- 
 fectly picturesque in its form, and applicable to the steep 
 banks of the Teme, yet, in this flat situation, looks like 
 the miserable expedient of poverty, or a ridiculous af- 
 fectation of rural simplicity. 
 
137 
 
 the majestic Apollo, the brawny Hercu- 
 les, or the agonizing Laocoon. In Archi- 
 tecture, there is not less beauty in Gre- 
 cian columns, than in Gothic spires, pin- 
 nacles, and turrets. In Music, it is not 
 only the Bravura, the March, or Allegro 
 turioso, that ought to be permitted; we 
 must sometimes be charmed by the soft" 
 phiintive movement of the Siciliano, or 
 the tender graces of an Amoroso. In like 
 manner, Gardenmg must include the two 
 opposite characters of native wildness and 
 artificial comfort, each adapted to the 
 genius and character of the place; yet 
 ever mindful that near the residence of 
 man, convenience, and not picturesque 
 effect, must have the preference, where- 
 ever they are placed in competition with 
 each other. 
 
 I flatter myself that no part of this 
 chapter will be deemed irrelevant to the 
 subject of my work, M'hich is an attempt 
 to explain and elucidate certain general 
 principles in the art I profess; especially 
 as those principles have been formally 
 attacked and misrepresented by one who 
 
138 
 
 has given such consummate proof of good 
 taste in some of the improvements of his 
 own place, Downton Vale near Ludlow, 
 one of the most beautiful and romantic 
 valleys that the imagination can conceive. 
 It is impossible by description to convey 
 an idea of its natural charms, or to do 
 justice to that taste which has displayed 
 these charms to the greatest advantage, 
 
 " With art clandestine, and conceal'd design." 
 Vale at A narrow, wild, and natural path, some- 
 
 Downton 
 
 described, timcs crccps undcr the beetling rock, 
 close by the margin of a mountain stream. 
 - It sometimes ascends to an awful preci- 
 pice, from Avhence the foaming waters are 
 heard roaring in the dark abyss below, or 
 seen wildly dashing against its opposite 
 banks; while, in other places, the course 
 of the river Teme being impeded by na- 
 tural ledges of rock, the vale presents a 
 calm, glassy mirror, that reflects the sur- 
 rounding foliage. The path, in various 
 places, crosses the water by bridges of 
 the most romantic and contrasted forms; 
 and, branching in various directions, in- 
 
139 
 
 eluding some miles in length, is occasion- 
 ally varied and enriched by caves and 
 cells, hovels, and covered seats, or other 
 buildings, in perfect harmony with the 
 wild but pleasing horrors of the scene. 
 Yet, if the same picturesque objects were 
 introduced in the gardens of a villa near 
 the capital, or in the more tame yet in- 
 teresting pleasure grounds which I am 
 frequently called upon to decorate; they 
 would be as absurd, incongruous, and out 
 of character, as a Chinese temple from 
 Vauxhall transplanted into the vale of 
 Down ton, 
 
 " Whate'er its essence, or whate'er its namCj 
 Whate'er its modesj 'tis still in all the same; 
 'Tis just congruity of parts combin'd 
 Must please the sense, and satisfy the mind." 
 
 THE LANDSCAPE. 
 
140 
 
 AnsTTcr to In thc ycET l/P^ a work first appeared 
 
 Mr. Price's 
 
 "Essay." under the title of '* An Essay on the 
 PtCTURESQUE," by Uvedalc Price, Esq. 
 which the author allows to be " a direct 
 " and undisguised attack on the Art of 
 " Landscape Gardening." This obliged 
 me to take up its defence by the following 
 letter, of which a few copies only were 
 printed, but none sold, at least with my 
 consent.' 
 
 1 sincerely regret that this unexpected 
 renewal of attack by Mr. Price's original 
 ally (although nou^ become a little hos- 
 tile), should oblige ine once more to en- 
 ter the lists. I have no new armour, and 
 have barely time to furbish up my old\ 
 therefore the following letter is reprinted 
 without variation, to shew the public that 
 my sentiments remain the same: — I stand 
 on the same ground; my adversaries have 
 changed theirs a little. 
 
 ' This letter afterwards appeared in a note to th«; 
 appendix to my " Sketches and Hints," of which (as 
 before mentioned) only 250 copies were printed by 
 Messrs. Boydell. 
 
SIR, . , :<. f K . , .. 
 
 I AM much obliged by your 
 attention, in having directed your book- 
 seller to send me an early copy of your 
 ingenious work. It has been my compa- 
 nion during a long journey, and has fur- 
 nished me with entertainment, similar to 
 that which I have occasionally had the 
 honour to experience, from your ani- 
 mated conversation on the subject. In 
 the general principles and theory of the 
 art, which you have considered with so 
 much attention, I flatter myself that we 
 agree; and that our difference of opinion 
 relates only to the propriety, or, perhaps, 
 possibility, of reducing them to practice. 
 I must thank both Mr. Knight and 
 yourself, for mentioning my name as an 
 exception to "the tasteless herd of Mr. 
 Brown's followers." But while you arc 
 pleased to allow me some of the qualities 
 necessary to my profession, you suppose 
 me deficient in others, and therefore 
 strongly recommend the study of " what 
 
*' the higher artists have done, both in 
 " their pictures and drawings:" a branch 
 of knowledge \diich I have always consi- 
 dered to be not less essential to my pro- 
 fession than hydraulics or surveying; and 
 without which I should never have pre- 
 sumed to arrogate to myself the title of 
 *^ Landscape Gaj^dener" which, in allusion 
 to my having adopted it, you observe is, 
 " a title of no small pretension.'" 
 
 It is difficult to define good taste in 
 any of the polite arts; and amongst the 
 respective professors of them, I am sorry 
 to observe that it is seldom allowed in a 
 rival ; while those who are not professors, 
 but, being free from the business or dis- 
 sipation of life, find leisure to excel in 
 any one of these arts, generally find time 
 also to cultivate the others ; and because 
 there really does exist some affinity be- 
 twixt them, they are apt to suppose it 
 still greater. Thus Music and Poetry are 
 often coupled together, although few in- 
 stances occur in which they are made to 
 assimilate; because the melody of an air 
 is seldom adapted either to the rhyme or 
 
143 
 
 measure of the verse. In like manner, 
 Poetry and Painting are often joined; 
 but the canvas rarely embodies those 
 ligurative personages to advantage, which 
 the poet's enthusiasm presents to the read- 
 er's imagination. 
 
 During the pleasant hours we passed ^y**^ 
 tog-ether amidst the romantic scenery of Convem- 
 
 o J ence. 
 
 the Wye, I do remember my acknow- 
 ledging that an enthusiasm for the pictu- 
 resque had originally led me to fancy 
 greater affinity betwixt Painting and 
 Gardening, than I found to exist after 
 more mature consideration, and more 
 practical experience; because, in whate'ver 
 relates to man, propriety and convenience 
 are not less objects of good taste, than pictu- 
 resque effect', and a beautiful garden scene 
 is not more defective because it would 
 not look well on canvas, than a didactic 
 poem, because it neither furnishes a sub- 
 ject for the painter or the musician. 
 There are a thousand scenes in nature 
 to delight the eye, besides those Avhich 
 may be copied as pictures; and indeed 
 me of the keenest observers of pictu- 
 
144 
 
 resque scenery (Mr. Gilpin) has often 
 regretted that few are capable of being 
 so represented, without considerable li- 
 cense and alteration. 
 
 If therefore the painter's landscape be 
 indispcnsible to the perfection of garden- 
 ing, it would surely be far better to paint 
 it on canvas at the end of an avenue (as 
 they do in Holland), than to sacrifice 
 » the health, cheerfulness, and comfort 
 of a country residence, to the wild but 
 pleasing scenery of a painter's imagina- 
 tion. 
 Beauty, There is no exercise so delightful to 
 
 and not ^ £* j j 
 
 Picturesque- the inquisitive mind, as that or deducing 
 
 ness. , ,. . . . 
 
 theories and systems trom favourite opi- 
 nions: I was therefore peculiarly inte- 
 rested and gratified by your ingenious 
 distinction betwixt the beautiful and the 
 picturesque; but I cannot admit the pro- 
 priety of its application to Landscape 
 Gardening; because beauty, and not 
 '• picturesqueness," is the chief object of 
 modern improvement: for although some 
 nurserymen, or labourers in the kitchen 
 garden, may have badly copied Mr. 
 
145 
 
 Brown's manner, yet the unprejudiced 
 eye will discover innumerable beauties 
 in the works of that ^reat self-taus^ht 
 master: and since you have so judiciously 
 marked the distinction betwixt the beau- 
 tiful and the picturesque, they will per- 
 haps discover, that, where the habitation 
 and convenience of man can be improved 
 hy beauty, " picturesqueness" may he trans- 
 ferred to the ragged gipsy, with whom 
 " the wild ass, the Pomeranian dog, and 
 shaggy goat," are more in harmony, than 
 " the sleek-coated horse," or the dappled 
 deer. The continual moving and lively 
 agitation observable in herds of deer, is 
 one of the circumstances which painting 
 cannot represent; but it is not less an 
 object of beauty and cheerfulness in park 
 scenery. 
 
 It is the misfortune of every liberal 
 art to find among its professors some men 
 of uncouth manners; and since my pro- 
 fession has more frequently been prac- 
 tised by persons of no education, it is 
 the more difficult to give it that rank 
 umongst the polite arts, which I conceive 
 
 L 
 
■ 146 
 
 it ought to hold : but I am now more par- 
 ticularly called upon to support its re- 
 spectability, since you attack the very 
 existence of that profession, at the head 
 of which, both you and Mr. Knight have 
 the goodness to say that I am deservedly 
 placed. 
 Landscape Your ucw thcory of deducing Land- 
 
 a happy"^' scupc Gai'demng from pa'mting is so plausi- 
 me mm. ^^^^ t\\2itj like uiauy other philosophic 
 theories, it may captivate and mislead, 
 unless duly examined by the test of ex- 
 perience and practice. I cannot help 
 seeing great affinity betwixt deducing 
 gardening from the painter's studies of 
 wild nature, and deducing government 
 from the uncontrouled opinions of man 
 in a savage state. The neatness, simpli- 
 city, and elegance of English gardening, 
 have acquired the approbation of mo- 
 dern times, as the happy medium be- 
 twixt the wildness of nature and the stiff- 
 ness of art; in the same manner as the 
 English constitution is the happy medium 
 betwixt the liberty of savages, and the 
 restraint of despotic government; but so 
 
147 
 
 long as we enjoy the benefit of these mid- 
 dle degrees betwixt extremes of each, 
 let experiments of untried theoretical 
 improvement be made in some other 
 country. 
 
 So far I have endeavoured to defend ciumps 
 Mr. Brown with respect to the general Beits. 
 principle of improvement. But it is ne- 
 cessary to enter something farther into 
 the detail of his practice of what has been 
 ludicrously called clumping and belting. 
 No man of taste can hesitate betwixt the 
 natural group of trees, composed of va- 
 rious growths, and those formal patches 
 of firs which too often disfigure a laAV'n, 
 under the name of clumps: but the most 
 certain method of producing a group of 
 five or six trees, is to plant fifty or sixty 
 within the same fence; and this Mr. Brown 
 frequently advised, with a mixture of firs, 
 to protect and shelter the young trees 
 during their infancy; unfortunately, the 
 neglect or bad taste of his employers 
 would occasionally suffer the firs to re- 
 main long after they had completed their 
 ollrtcc as nurses ; while others have ac- 
 
 *:\ 
 
148 
 
 tually planted Jirs only in such clumps, 
 totally misconceiving Mr. Brown's ori- 
 ginal intention. Nor is it uncommon to 
 see these black patches surrounded by a 
 , painted rail, a quick hedge, or even a 
 stone wall, instead of that temporary 
 fence, which is always an object of ne- 
 cessity, and not of choice. 
 The Clump If a large expanse of lawn happens 
 unfortunately to have no single trees or 
 groups to diversify its surface, it is some- 
 times necessary to plant them; and if the 
 size and quantity of these clumps or 
 masses bear a just proportion to the ex- 
 tent of lawn, or shape of the ground, 
 they are surely less offensive than a mul- 
 titude of starving single trees, surrounded 
 by heavy cradle fences, which are often 
 dotted over the whole surface of a park. 
 I will grant, that where a few old trees 
 can be preserved of former hedge-rows, 
 the clump is seldom necessary, except in 
 a flat country. The clump therefore is 
 never to be considered as an object of 
 present beauty^ but as a more certain ex- 
 ' pedient for Y>TO(\\xcmgfuturcbeautieSy than 
 
149 
 
 young trees, which very seldom grow 
 when exposed singly to the wind and 
 
 sun. rf :■:'■.■ i','^ 
 
 I shall now proceed to defend my pre- The Beit. 
 decessor's belt, on the same principle of 
 expedience. Although I perfectly agree 
 that, in certain situations, it has been ex*- 
 ecuted in a manner to be tiresome in it- 
 self, and highly injurious to the general 
 scenery; yet there are many places in 
 which no method could be more fortur 
 nately devised, than a belt or boundary 
 of plantation to encompass the park or 
 lawn. It is often too long, and always 
 too narrow, but from painful experience 
 I am convinced, that notwithstanding the 
 obstinacy and presumption of which Mr. 
 Brown is accused, he had equal difficul- 
 ties to surmount from the profusion, and 
 the parsimony of his employers, or he 
 would never have consented to those 
 meagre girdles of plantation which are 
 extended for many miles in length, air 
 though not above twenty pr thirty yards 
 in breadtL 
 
 Let me briefly trace the origin, in- its Origin. 
 
 =*■¥ 
 
150 
 
 tention, and uses of a belt. The comfort 
 and pleasure of a country residence re- 
 quire that some ground, in proportion 
 to the size of the house, should be sepa- 
 rated from the adjoining ploughed fields; 
 this inclosure, call it park, or lawn, or 
 pleasure ground, must have the air of 
 being appropriated to the peculiar use 
 and pleasure of the proprietor. The love 
 of seclusion and safety is not less natural 
 to man than that of liberty; and I con- 
 ceive it would be almost as painful to live 
 in a house without the power of shutting 
 any door, as in one with all the doors 
 locked : the mind is equally displeased 
 with the excess of liberty, or of restraint, 
 when either is too apparent. From hence 
 proceeds the necessity of inclosing a park, 
 and also of hiding the boundary by which 
 it is inclosed; now a plantation being the 
 most natural means of hiding a park pale, 
 nothing can be more obvious than a drive 
 or walk in such a plantation. If this belt 
 be made of one uniform breadth, with a 
 drive as uniformly serpentining through 
 the middle of it, I am ready to allow that 
 
151 
 
 the way can only be interesting to him 
 who wishes to examine the growth of his 
 young trees; to every one else it must be 
 tedious, and its dulness will increase in 
 proportion to its length. On the con- 
 trary, if the plantation be judiciously 
 made of various breadth, if its outline 
 be adapted to the natural shape of the 
 ground, and if the drive be conducted 
 irregularly through its course, sometimes 
 totally within the dark shade, sometimes 
 skirting so near its edge as to shew the 
 different scenes betwixt the trees, and 
 sometimes quitting the M-ood entirely to 
 enjoy the unconfinec] view of distant pro- 
 spects, — it will surely be allowed that 
 such a plantation is the best possible means 
 of connecting and displaying the various 
 pleasing points of view, at a distance from 
 each other, within the limits of the park; 
 and the only just objection that can be 
 urged is — where such points do not occur 
 often enough, and where the length of a 
 drive is substituted for its varktij. 
 
 This letter, which has been written at 
 various opportunities, during my journey 
 
152 
 
 into Derbyshire, has insensibly grown to 
 a bulk which 1 httle expected when I 
 began it : I shall therefore have a few 
 copies printed, for the use of my friends, 
 in defence of an Art, which, I trust, will 
 not be totally suppressed, although you 
 so earnestly recommend every gentleman 
 to become his own landscape gardener. 
 With equal propriety might every gen- 
 tleman become his own architect, or even 
 his own physician: in short, there is no- 
 thing that a man of abilities may not do 
 for himself, if he will dedicate his whole 
 attention to that subject only. But the 
 life of man is not sufficient to excel in all 
 things; and as " a little knowledge is a 
 dangerous thing," so the professors of 
 every art, as well as that of medicine, 
 will often find that the most difficult cases 
 are those, where the patient has begun 
 by quacking himself. 
 
 The general rules of art are to be ac- 
 quired by study; but the manner of ap- 
 plying them can only be learned by prac- 
 tice; yet there are certain good plans, 
 which, like certain good medicines, may 
 
153 
 
 be proper in almost every case; it was 
 therefore no greater impeachment of Mr. 
 Brown's taste to anticipate his belt in a 
 naked country, than it would be to a phy- 
 sician to guess, before he saw the patient, 
 that he would prescribe James's powders 
 in a fever. 
 
 In the volume of my works now in 
 the press," I have endeavoured to trace 
 the difference betwixt painting and gar- 
 denings as well as to make a distinction 
 betwixt a landscape and a prospect; sup- 
 posing the former to be the proper sub- 
 ject for a painter, while the latter is that 
 in which every body delights; and, in 
 spite of the fastidiousness of connoisseur- 
 ship, we must allow something to the ge- 
 neral voice of mankind. I am led to this 
 remark from observing the effect of 
 picturesque scenery on the visitors of 
 Matlock Bath (where this part of my 
 letter has been written). In the valley 
 a thousand delightful subjects present 
 
 ■" This will be found in the preceding pages re- 
 printed from my " Sketches and Hints," 
 
1j4 
 
 themselves to tlie painter, yet the visitors 
 of this place are seldom satisfied till they 
 have climbed the neighbouring hills, to 
 take a bird's-eye view of the whole spot, 
 which no painting can represent : — the 
 love of prospect seems a natural propen- 
 sity, an inherent passion of the human 
 . mind, if I may use so strong an expres- 
 sion. 
 The Arts, Tliis cousidcration confirms my opi- 
 
 how ^ , . . 
 
 connected, nion that painting and gardening are nearly 
 connected, but not so intimately related 
 as you imagine: they are not sister arts, 
 proceeding from the same stock, but ra- 
 ther congenial natures, brought together 
 like man and wife; while therefore you 
 exult in the office of mediator betwixt 
 these two 'imaginary personages," you 
 should recollect the danger of interfer- 
 ing in their occasional differences, and 
 especially how you advise them both to 
 ' wear the same articles of dress. 
 
 I shall conclude this long letter by an 
 allusion to a work, which it is impossible 
 for you to admire more than 1 do. IMr. 
 Burke, in his Essay on the Sublime and 
 
155 
 
 Beautiful, observes, that habit will make 
 a man prefer the taste of tobacco to that 
 of sugar; yet the world will never be 
 brought to say that sugar is not sweet. 
 In like manner both Mr. Knight and 
 you are in the habits of admiring fine 
 pictures, and both live amidst bold and 
 picturesque scenery: this may have ren- 
 dered you insensible to the beauty of 
 those milder scenes that have charms for 
 common observers. I will not arraign 
 your taste, or call it vitiated, but your 
 palate certainly requires a degree of " ir- 
 ritation" rarely to be expected in garden 
 scenery; and, I trust, the good sense and 
 good taste of this country will never be 
 led to despise the comfort of a gravel- 
 walk, the delicious fragrance of a shrub- 
 bery, the soul expanding delight of a 
 wide extended prospect, or the grandeur 
 of a view down a steep hill, because they 
 are all subjects incapable of being painted. 
 Notwithstanding the occasional aspe- 
 rity of your remarks on my opinions, and 
 the unprovoked sally of Mr. Knight's wit, 
 I esteem it a very pleasant circumstance 
 
156 
 
 of my life to have been personally known 
 to you both, and to have witnessed your 
 good taste in many situations. I shall 
 beg leave, therefore, to subscribe my- 
 self, with much regard and esteem. 
 
 Sir, 
 Your most obedient, 
 humble servant. 
 
 H. REPTON. 
 
 Hare Street, near Romford, 
 July I, 1794. 
 
157 
 
 This produced a printed answer 
 from Mr. Price, to which he had my per- 
 mission to prefix my letter, and thus our 
 opinions were brought into more general 
 notice; and I supposed we had both satis- 
 fied the public, by shewing how Uttle we 
 disagreed; or rather, by demonstrating 
 that these gentlemen had not gone deep 
 enough into the subject; or, as it is ex- 
 pressed in a letter from a Right Hon. 
 Friend, " that they did not trace with 
 " any success the causes of their plea- 
 
 " This letter is inserted as the most valuable testi- 
 mony in support of my defence, from a friend, whose 
 name, were I permitted to mention it, would confer 
 lustre on my work, as it does on every cause to which 
 he gives his support. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " I MUST not delay to thank 
 
 " you at once for your obliging offer of the use of 
 
 " your house, and for the very agreeable present of 
 
 " your printed letter to Mr. Price. I read it the mo- 
 
 " ment that I received it, and read it in the way most 
 
 '' flattering to the writer, by taking it up without any 
 
 " settled purpose, and being carried on by approbation 
 
158 
 
 The mistaken idea of referring the 
 perfection of Landscape Gardening to 
 
 " of what I found there. You know of old that I am 
 ■"' quite of your side in the question between you, and 
 " am certain that the farther you go in this controversy, 
 " the more you will have the advantage. Nothing in- 
 " deed can be so absurd, nor so unphilosophical, as 
 " the system which Mr, Knight and Mr. Price seem 
 " to set up. It not only is not true in practice, that 
 ** men should expose themselves to agues and rheunia- 
 " tisms, by removing from their habitations every con- 
 " venience that may not happen to fall in with the ideas 
 " of picturesque beauty 3 but it is not true that w^hat is 
 " adverse to comfort and convenience is in situations 
 " of that sort the most beautiful. The writers of this 
 " school, with all their affectation of superior sensibi- 
 "■ lity, shew evidently/ that they do not trace with any 
 " success the causes of their pleasure. Does the plea- 
 " sure that we receive from the view of parks and gar- 
 " dens result from their affording in their several parts 
 "^^ subjects that would appear to advantage in a picture? 
 " In the first place, what is most beautiful in nature is 
 " not always capable of being represented most advan- 
 " tageously by painting j the instance you gi\e of an 
 " extensive prospect, the most affecting sight that the 
 "■ eye can bring before us, is quite conclusive. I do 
 "■ not know any thing that does, and naturally should, 
 " so strongly affect the mind, as the sudden transition 
 " from such a portion of space as we commonly have 
 ." before our eyes, to such a view of the habitable globe 
 
159 
 
 picturesque effect, induced me to enquire 
 into the various causes or sources of the 
 
 ' as may be exhibited in the case of some extensive 
 ' prospects. Many things too, as you illustrate well 
 ' in the instance of deer, are not capable of represen- 
 ' tation in a picture at all; and of this sort must every 
 ' thing be that depends on motion and succession. But 
 ' in the next place, tlie beauties of nature itself, and 
 ' which painting can exhibit, are many, and most of 
 ' them, probabl)' of a sort which have nothing to do 
 ' with the purposes of habitation, and are even wholly 
 ' inconsistent with them. A scene of a cavern, with 
 ' banditti sitting by it, is the favourite subject of Sal- 
 ' vator Rosa; but are we therefore to live in caves, or 
 ' encourage the neighbourhood of banditti ? Gainsbo- 
 ' rough's Countiy Girl is a more picturesque object 
 ' than a child neatly dressed in a white frock; but is 
 ' that a reason why our children are to go in rags ? 
 ' Yet this is just the proposition which Mr. Knight 
 ' maintains in the contrast which he exhibits of the 
 ' same place, dressed in the modern style, and left, as 
 ' he thinks, it ought to be. The whole doctrine is so 
 ' absurd, that when set forth in its true shape, no one 
 ' will be hardy enough to stand by it; and accordingly 
 ' they never do so set it forth, nor exhibit it in any dis- 
 ' tinct shape at all, but only take a general credit for 
 ' their attachment to principles which every body is 
 ' attached to as well as they; and where the only qucs- 
 ' tion is of the application which they afford you no 
 ' means of making. They are lovers of picturesque 
 
160 
 
 pleasure derived from this art; and these 
 
 " beauty, so is every body else 5 but is it contended 
 " that in laying out a place, whatever is most pictu- 
 " resque is most conformable to true taste? If they say 
 " so, as they seem to do in many passages, they must 
 " be led to consequences which they can never venture 
 " to avow: if they do not say so, the whole is a ques- 
 •' tion of how much, or how little, which without the 
 " instances before yoa can never be decided ; and all that 
 " they can do is to lay down a system as depending on 
 " one principle, wh.ch they themselves are obliged to 
 " confess afterwards,, depends upon many. They either 
 " say what is false, or what turns out upon examina- 
 *■• tion to be— nothing at all. I hope, therefore, that 
 "■you will pursue the system which I conceive you to 
 " have adopted, and vindicate to the art of laying out 
 " ground its true principles, which are wholly differ- 
 " ent from those which these wild improvers would 
 "■ wish to introduce. Places are not to be laid out with 
 " a view to their appearance in a picture, but to tJieir 
 "" uses, and the enjoyment of them in real life, and their 
 " conformity to those purposes is that which constitutes 
 "" their true beauty ; with this view gravel- walks, and 
 " neat mown lawns^ and in some situations straight al^ 
 " leys, fountains, terraces, and, for aught 1 know, par- 
 " terres and cut hedges, are in perfect good taste, and 
 " infinitely more conformable to the principles which 
 " form the basis of our pleasure in these instances, than 
 " tlie docks and tliistles, and litter and disorder, tliat 
 " may make a much better figure in a picture." 
 
161 y : 
 
 may be enumerated under the following 
 heads. 
 
 I. Congruity; or a proper adaptation sources oi 
 
 Pleasure. 
 
 of the several parts to the whole; and that 
 whole to the character, situation, and cir- 
 cumstances of the place and its possessor. 
 
 II. Utility. This includes conveni- 
 ence, comfort, neatness, and every thing 
 that conduces to the purposes of habita- 
 tion with elegance. 
 
 III. Order. Including correctness 
 and finishing; the cultivated mind is 
 shocked by such things as would not be 
 visible to the clown: thus an awkward 
 bend in a walk, or lines M'hich ought to 
 be parallel, and are not so, give pain; as 
 a serpentine walk through an avenue, or 
 along the course of a straight wall or 
 building. 
 
 IV. Symmetry ; or that correspond- 
 ence of parts expected in the front of 
 buildings, particularly Grecian ; which, 
 howeyerformal in apainting, require simi- 
 larity and uniformity of parts to please 
 the eye, even of children. So natural is 
 the love of order and of symmetry to the 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 human mind, that it is not surprising it 
 should have extended itself into our gar- 
 dens, where nature itself was made sub- 
 servient, by cutting trees into regular 
 shapes, planting them in rows, or at exact 
 equal distances, aad frequently of differ- 
 ent kinds in alternate order. 
 
 These first foir heads may be consi- 
 dered as generallv adverse to picturesque 
 beauty, yet they are not, therefore, to be 
 discarded: there are situations in which 
 the ancient style of gardening is very pro- 
 perly preserved ; witness the academic 
 groves and classic walks in our univer- 
 sities ; and I shculd doubt the taste of 
 any improver, who could despise the con- 
 gruity, the utilit}, the order, and the sym- 
 metry of the small garden at Trinity Col- 
 lege, Oxford, because the clipped hedges 
 and straight walks would not look well 
 in a picture. 
 
 V. Picturesijue J^ff^ct. This head, 
 which has been so fully and ably consi- 
 dered by Mr. Price, furnishes the gar- 
 dener with breadth of light and shade, 
 forms of groups, outline, colouring, ba 
 
163 
 
 iunce of composition, and occasional ad- 
 vantaq:e from rouo-bness and decav, the 
 effect of time and age. 
 
 VI. Intricacy. A word frecjuently 
 used in my red books, wbicli Mr. Price 
 bas very correctly defined to be that dis- 
 " position of objects, wbicb, by a partial 
 " and uncertain concealment, excites and 
 " nourishes curiosity." 
 
 VII. Simplicity, or that disposition of 
 objects, which, without exposing all of 
 them equally to view at once, may lead 
 the eye to each by an easy gradation, 
 without flutter, confusion, or perplexity. 
 
 VIII. Variety. This may be gratified 
 by natural landscape, in a thousand ways 
 that painting cannot imitate; since it is 
 observed of the best painter's works, that 
 there is a sameness in their compositions, 
 and even their trees are all of one general 
 kind, while the variety of nature's pro- 
 ductions is endless, and ought to be duly 
 studied. 
 
 IX. Novelty. Although a ^reat source 
 of pleasure, this is the most difficult and 
 most dangerous for an artist to attempt; 
 
164 
 
 it is apt to lead him into conceits and 
 whims, which lose their novelty after the 
 first surprise. 
 
 X. Contrast supplies the place of no- 
 velty, by a sudden and unexpected change 
 of scenery, provided the transitions are 
 neither too frequent nor too violent. 
 
 XI. Continuity. This seems evidently 
 to be a source of pleasure, from the de- 
 light expressed in a long avenue, and the 
 disgust at an abrupt break between objects 
 that look as if they ought to be united ; 
 as in the chasm betwixt two large woods, 
 or the separation betwixt two pieces of 
 water; and even a walk, which terminates 
 without affording a continued line of com- 
 munication, is always unsatisfactory. 
 
 XII. Association. This is one of the 
 most impressive sources of delight, whe- 
 ther excited by local accident, as the spot 
 on which some public character performed 
 his part; by the remains of antiquity, as 
 the ruin of a cloister or a castle; but 
 more particularly by that personal at- 
 tachment to long known objects, perhaps 
 indifferent in themselves, as the favourite 
 
165 
 
 seat, the tree, the walk, or the spot 
 endeared by the remembrance of past 
 events : objects of this kind, however 
 trifling in themselves, are often preferred 
 to the most beautiful scenes that paint- 
 ing can represent, or gardening create : 
 such partialities should be respected and 
 indulged, since true taste, which is ge- 
 nerally attended by great sensibility, 
 ought to be the guardian of it in others. 
 
 XIII. Grandeur. This is rarely pic- 
 turesque, whether it consist in greatness 
 of dimension, extent of prospect, or in 
 splendid and numerous objects of magni- 
 ficence ; but it is a source of pleasure 
 mixed with the sublime: there is, how- 
 ever, no error so common as an attempt 
 to substitute extent for beauty in park 
 scenery, which proves the partiality of 
 the human mind to admire whatever is 
 vast or great. 
 
 XIV. Appropriation. A word ridi- 
 culed by Mr. Price as lately coined by 
 me, to describe extent of property; yet 
 the appearance and display of such ex- 
 tent is a source of pleasure not to be 
 
166* 
 
 disrcgaiiled; since every individual who 
 possesses any thing, whether it be mental 
 endowments, or power, or property, ob- 
 tains respect in proportion as his posses- 
 sions are known, provided he does not 
 too vainly boast of them; and it is the 
 sordid miser only who enjoys for himself 
 alone, wishing the world to be ignorant 
 of his wealth. The pleasure of appropri- 
 ation is gratified in viewing a landscape 
 which cannot be injured by the malice 
 or bad taste of a neighbouring intruder : 
 thus an ugly barn, a j)loughed field, or 
 any obtrusive object which disgraces the 
 scenery of a park, looks as if it belonged 
 to another, and therefore robs the mind 
 of the pleasure derived from appropria- 
 tion, or the unit}' and continuity of un- 
 mixed property. 
 
 XV. Anmation; or that pleasure ex- 
 perienced from seeing life and motion; 
 w hether the gliding or dashing of water, 
 the sportive plaj' of animals, or the wavy 
 motion of trees; and particularly the play- 
 someness peculiar to youth in the two 
 last instances, affords additional delight. 
 
167 
 
 XVI. And lastly, the seasons, and times 
 of day, which are very different to the 
 gardener and the painter : the noontide 
 hour has its charms, though the shadows 
 are neither long nor broad, and none but 
 a painter or a sportsman will prefer the 
 sear and yellow leaves of autumn to the 
 fragrant blossoms and reviving delights 
 of spring, " the youth of the year." 
 
 On the first perusal of *' Mr. Knight's Conclusion, 
 Enquiry into the Principles of Taste," I 
 was astonished to discover so much con- 
 ceded to my opinion, since his first work 
 appeared; or rather, that my opinions 
 had been adopted in all his allusions to 
 Landscape Gardening: but on a closer 
 examination it appeared that no notice 
 whatever was taken of this change in the 
 author's sentiments since he wrote the 
 "Landscape," or of the works which 
 had probably caused this revolution: on 
 the contrary, the same indignation pre- 
 vails against the art and its professors, 
 without any exception, or any acknoM'- 
 ledgment of coincidence in opinion. — 
 Under such circumstances, as I had no- 
 
168 
 
 thing new to answer, the best defence of 
 the art was a repubhcation of those opi- 
 nions which are now in a very few hands, 
 from the original work having been long 
 out of print. With these I have blended 
 some additional matter, the result of sub- 
 sequent experience, and particularly of 
 observations on the practice of so able a 
 theorist as Mr. Knight on a spot where 
 (unlike the professional artist) he acts 
 without controul. 
 
 To the cursory remarks on the approach 
 at Downton (p. 1 10), and the foreground 
 attempted (p. 120), I might have retorted 
 the severity of satiric criticism, by adding 
 some severe and ludicrous comments on 
 the style of planting single trees, as in an 
 orchard, and some strictures on the in- 
 correctness of the Pseudo-go thic charac- 
 ter in the buildings ; but as this gentle- 
 man's practical taste can do no injury by 
 its example, and as his theoretical taste 
 must do good by the justness of many of 
 of its precepts, I am happy to acknow- 
 ledge my obligations for the pleasure his 
 works have afforded, while I defend my- 
 
169 
 
 self, and the art I profess, from oblique 
 attacks which have not been deserved. 
 
 My theory and practice are often at 
 variance; since the Landscape Gardener 
 must often declare with the moralist, 
 Video meliora proboque, &c. 
 
 I shall therefore beg* leave to conclude 
 this defence of my practice by repeating 
 the same words with which I conclude 
 the preface to my " Observations, &c." 
 a work Avhich, from its high price, may 
 not become so generally known as this 
 small volume. 
 
 " I should be sorry, that to my tast^ 
 should be attributed all the absurdities 
 Avhicli fashion, or custom, or whim, may 
 have occasionally introduced in places 
 where I have been consulted. I can only 
 advise, I do not presume to dictate; and, 
 in many cases, must rather conform to 
 what has been ill begun, than attempt 
 to puU to pieces and re-model the whole 
 work. 
 
 Non mihi res, sed me rebus, subjungere Conor. 
 
 *' To avoid the imputation of having 
 
170 
 
 fully approved, where I have found it ne- 
 cessary merely to assent, I shall here beg 
 leave to subjoin my opinion negatively, 
 as the only means of doing so without 
 giving offence to those from whom I may 
 differ; at the same time, with the humility 
 of exptrience,^ I am conscious my opinion 
 may, in some cases, be deemed wrong. 
 The same motives which induce me to 
 mention what I recommend, will also jus- 
 tify me in mentioning what I disapprove: 
 a few observations, therefore, are sub- 
 joined to mark those errors, or absurdi- 
 ties in modern gardening and architec- 
 ture, to which I have never willingly 
 
 ° By one of the periodical critics this is called an 
 affected expression ; perhaps I ought to have said Hu- 
 mility acquired by Experience. I meant to express 
 tliat degree of diffidence which arises in the mind from 
 observing the different lights in which the same subject 
 is viewed by different persons, and even the changes in 
 a man's own mind from a more intimate kno?vledge of 
 the subject : in this sense the Humility of Experience 
 may be contrasted witli the pride and presumption of 
 ignorance. Thus the practical professor will often hum- 
 bly doubt, where the haughty theorist will dogmatically 
 decide. 
 
m 
 
 subscribed, and from M'liich it will easily 
 be ascertained how much of what is called 
 the improvement ofany place may properly 
 be attributed to my advice. It is rather 
 upon my opinions in Meriting-, than on the 
 partial and imperfect manner in which 
 my plans have sometimes been executed, 
 that I wish my Fame to be established. 
 
 Objection, No 1. 
 
 " There is no error more prevalent in 
 modern gardening, or more frequently 
 carried to excess, than taking away hedges 
 to unite many small fields into one exten- 
 sive and naked lawn, before plantations 
 are made to give it the appearance of a 
 park ; and where ground is subdivided by 
 sunk fences, imaginary freedom is dearly 
 purchased at the expence of actual con- 
 finement. 
 
 N°2. 
 
 '* The baldness and nakedness round 
 a house is part of the same mistaken sys- 
 tem, of concealing fences to gain extent. 
 A palace, or even an elegant villa, in a 
 grass field, appears to me incongruous; yet 
 
172 
 
 I have seldom (till very lately) had suf- 
 fieient influence to correct this common 
 
 error. 
 
 N'' 3. 
 
 " An approach which does not evi- 
 dently lead to the house, or which does 
 not apparently take the shortest course, 
 cannot he right. 
 
 N° 4. 
 
 " A poor man's cottage, divided into 
 what is called a pair of lodges, is a mis- 
 taken expedient to mark importance in 
 the entrance to a park. 
 
 N° 5. 
 " The entrance gate, which marks the 
 houndary of a place, should not be visi- 
 ble from the mansion, unless it opens into 
 a court yard : nor indeed should it be too 
 conspicuous from the interior of a park, 
 for the same reason that the pale is usually 
 concealed. 
 
 ** The plantation surrounding a place, 
 called a Belt, I have never advised; nor 
 have I ever willingly marked a drive, or 
 walk, completely round the verge of a 
 
173 
 
 park, except in small villas where a dry 
 path round a person's own field, is always 
 more interesting to him than any other 
 walk. 
 
 N°7. 
 " Small plantations of trees,surrounded 
 by a fence, are the best expedients to form 
 groupes, because trees planted singly sel- 
 dom grow well; neglect of thinning and 
 of removing the fence, has produced that 
 ugly deformity called a Clump. 
 
 N°8. 
 " Water on an eminence, or on the 
 side of a hill, is among the most common 
 errors of Mr. Brown's followers: in nu- 
 merous instances I have been allowed to 
 remove such pieces of water from the 
 hills to the valleys; but in many my ad- 
 vice has not prevailed. 
 
 " Deception may be allowable in imi- 
 tating the works of nature; thus arti- 
 ficial rivers, lakes, and rock scenery, can 
 only be great by deception, and the mind 
 acquiesces in the fraud, even after it is 
 
174 
 
 detected : but in works of art every trick 
 ought to be avoided. Sham churches, 
 sham ruins, sham bridges, and every thing 
 which appears Mdiat it is not, disgusts 
 when the trick is discovered. 
 
 N° 10. 
 ** In buildings of every kind the cha- 
 racter should be strictly observed. No 
 incongruous mixture can be justified. To 
 add Grecian to Gothic, or Gothic to Gre- 
 cian, is equally disgusting; and a sharp- 
 pointed arch to a garden gate, or a dairy 
 window, however frequently it occurs, is 
 not less offensive tban Grecian architec- 
 ture, in which the standard rules of rela- 
 tive proportion are neglected or violated. 
 
 " The perfection of Landscape Gar- 
 dening consists in the fullest attention to 
 these principles. Utility^ Proportion, and 
 Unity or harmony of parts to the whole." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 T. Bensley, Printer, 
 Bolt Court, Fleet Street, Loiideiv 
 

 mn GoamiMmi 
 
X 
 
LANDSCAPE 
 GARDENING 
 
 REPTON 
 
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