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UNIVERSITY OF

ILLINOIS UBRARY

AT URBANA.CHAMPAIGN

AN

ESSAY

ON

LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

By JOHN DALRYMPLE, Esq.

AUTHOR OF

"an ESSAY TOWARDS A GENERAL HISTORY OF FEUDAL PROPERTY IN GREAT BRITAIN."

" God Almighty first planted a garden ; and in- deed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man ; without which, buildings and palaces are but gross handy - works."

F. Bacon ViscourU St. Alhansj Essays.

" C'est aux Anglais que I'art du jardinage doit le plus haut degr^ de perfection."

M. Miilin, Diet, des Beatup-Arts,

GREENTWICH:

PRINTED FOR THE EDITOR,, BY W. RICHARDSON..

March,. 1823,.

[QSnttttri in tfte Utqi^itv ISoofe of m Company of J&tattonrr^ in iionlion*]

^ MEMORANDUM

.X)

C ^

The following Essay on Landscape Gardening is printed from the MS. of John Dalrymple, Esq. author of an '^Es- say towards a general history of Feudal Property in Great Britain.^' It was procured from Mr. Dalrymple for Mr. Shenstone, through the medium of Mr. Dodsley, about the year 1760 ; Mr, Shen- stone presented it to the Rev. Thomas Evans, afterwards Archdeacon of IVor- cester ; and at the dispersion of the libra- ry of that gentleman in 1815, it became the property of the Editor.

Bolton Corney.

Greenwich, ISth March, 1823.

Communicated to me by Mr. Dodsley ; and written by Mr. Dalrymple, a Scotch Advocate, the ingenious Author of the Feudal Tenures; and who was married about a week ago to the only Daughter of the Earl of Oxenford.

March. 18. 1760. PT. Shenstone.

m^ (BULWimm^^

Every work of art proposes for ils end either utility, or along with utility the raising certain plea- sing sentiments in the human mind. Works which propose the last end tor their aim have most dignity in them, and therefore the arts by which they are produced have a higher appellation. When we speak of an art in which mere utility is intended, we term it a mechanical art ; when we speak of an art which joins pleasure to utility, we call it one of the fine arts.

The art of laying out gardens has, within little more than an hundred jears in Europe, and within a much less time in great Britain, started up from being one of the former, to be one of the latter spe- cies of these arts. In all ages men have known the use of fruits, flowers, and herbs, for the pleasure of the sat^ics', it is almost only in our age, that they have introduced into gardens one half of the pleasing ob- jects of art and nature, for the entertainment of the i?nagincition.

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As one of the ends of all the fine arts consists m raising certain pleasing sentiments in the human mind, so it seems to be an essential requisite of these senti- ments, that they should not only have each of them something precise and characteristical, but that they should have likewise some common alliance among themselves. The first bar of a piece of music, the first row of pillars in a house, or tlie first nwvemcnt in a dance, all determine the particular cadence, ele- vation, or measure of the different wholes of which each makes a part.

In this respect, the art of laying out gardens has not as yet arrived at the same degree of taste to which some of the other arts have. Many gardens contain a disposition of grounds, and an assemblage of objects, which create many pleasing sentiments in the mind ; but it has scarce been the aim of any gar- dener to raise a train of precise characteristical senti- ments in the parts, and of allying and similar ones in the whole.

This deficiency in the art of gardening, as w€ practise it, is the more inexcusable, as nature herself seems to have stamped certain distinct seutiuients, upon the view of different dispositions of grounds.

There seem in nature to be four different dispo- sitions of grounds, distinct from each other, and which create distinct and separate sentiments.

The first situation is that of a highland coun- try, consisting of great and steep mountains, rocks, lakes, impetuous rivers, &c. Such a place is INVERARY. The sentiment which a situation like this creates in the breast of a beholder is obviously, and everyone feels it, that of grandeur.

The next, is what one may call a romantic dis- position of grounds, consisting of sunk vallies, woods hanging over them, smooth rivers, the banks steep but accessible, and the rocks appearing high, not so much from their own height, as from the trees which crown, and the wild birds that are continually hover- ing over them. Such a situation is generally desti-

tute of prospect ; but then in return, both the whole and parts of it, being very precisely marked, give the same room to the imas^ination of the gardener, that they give to that of the landscape painter. Places like this we have on the banks of many of our small fivers in the low countries of Scotland. The senti- ment which such a situation seems to flatter, is that of composure of mind, and perhaps even of melan- choly.

A third disposition is that of grounds running by gentle falls and risings easily into each other. In situations of this kind are placed many of the En- glish modern gardens, and particularly those which KENT delighted in laying out. Such a situation as this, is generally attended with great verdure, culti- vation, and populousness ; and naturally creates in the miiid thai sentiment of cheerfulness which society and action are apt to create.

The last situation is that of a dead ilat. A situ- ation of this kind may, from its verdure, or from ifcj extent, or from its contrast with other grounds which, surround it, create some particular sentiment; but merely considered in itself, it appears to create lit- tle or none.

Nature not only raises these different sentiments^ upon the view of these different situations; but she gives a love and attachment for one or the other of them, according to the different tempers of men. A man who is fond of great projects, or great exploits; or who has a hii;li regard for the splendor of his ances- tors, will love the first situation. The ancient nobil- ity and gentry of wales and Scotland are ob- served to be fond, beyond the rest of mankind, of their seats. A man in misfortunes will naturally re- tire to the second situation : and for this reason many of the convents abroad are observed to be built in such places. A cheerful gay temper will na- turally love the third; and a person of no taste or feeling will as readily be pleased with the sameness, and (if I may use the expression) uninterestinguess of the last situation..

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The phlegm of a citizen is as much seen in cut- ling down the pleasing inequahties of ground, and throwing his whole garden into the dead flat of a bowling green, as the love of art and show and ex- pense of LOUIS the XIV. is to be seen in the unnatu- ral wonders of Versailles.

Now as nature has created these sentiments, upon the view of these situations; and further has created a love in different tempers for one or other of them ; it would appear to be the perfection of art, to second these her operations. For this reason, the natural objects must be heightened in such a man- ner, as to mark more distinctly the genius of the situation, where it has one ; and next, the artificial objects brought into it, must be such as create senti- ments similar to those which are created by it. This last rule admits only of this one exception ; that where the sentiment created by the natural situation is not agreeable in itself, the aim of the objects brought into it, ought to be to soften and temper that sentiment.

'J'he objects, either natural or artificial, which rnler into the composition of a garden, are chiefly four : buildings, grounds, water, and trees.

Let us now observe of what use these instru- ments may be made, according to the four capital si- tuations in nature.

First I The slenderness of an ionic or corin- Sifuatmn. \ thian pillar, placed at the side of a va^t mountain, would create a lidiculous comparison; and therefore in a highland situation, the principal liouse should be in the form of a castle. The ele- gance and fineness of execution belonging to the GRECIAN architecture, would be here totally mis- placed. If in that castle, added to the greatness and solid appearance of the main building, there should shoot up in the middle a gothic tower, pierced and of hardy execution, a sentiment similar to the senti- ment of terror, added to that of grandeur, would still more correspond to the natural genius of the place.

The other buildings through the garden should cor- respond to this one ; they should have that great- ness and hardiness in thera, which the GOTHIC archi- tecture above all other gives. If a bridge is to be built, it should consist of one vast bold arch, instead of two or three elegant small ones ; and if it has one or two ornaments it should have no more. The other buildings through the garden, should in general be rather of the square than of the round form. This last Ibrni has in it too much of elegance and lightness.. But as the sameness of continual squares would tire, buildings consisting of many sides have not the ele- gance of the round, and yet along with the solidity^ of the square form, have a kind of magic appearance, that perhaps is more corresponding to the nature of the sentiment to be raised, than this last form itself.. Of the effect of these many-siHed squares, there- is a fine instance in Mil. aisleby's Gothic octagon,, when surveyed from tlie low parts of the garden at STUDLEY.^ Though the gothic architecture should in such a place be in general preferred to the Gre- cian, yet in particular spots it may be improper: in that case the doPvIC, or even the more rustic TUSCAN order, would be proper to supply its place. The disposition of planting and water should cor- respond to the same greatness of matter and man- ner in the buildings. If a piece of water is to be made, it should be a lake, not :i pond ; it should be thrown into one great sheet, like the lake at Blen- heim, in an agreeable and natural shape, but with- out symmetry, instead of being split into a dozen basins, and those of \\himsical forms, like MR. aisle- by's at studley. The rapidity and noise of the rivers, should be increased by artificial bulwarks and impediments, as is done at invehary ; and the falls of water should, either by the interposition of rocks, or of new streams brought over them, be made to look more like cataracts than cascades. If a planta- tion is to be made, it should cover the whole side and top of a mountain : it should consist of the greatt

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forest trees ; such of the exotic evergreens hs will grow there, will particularly add to the uncouth ap- pearance of the place ; and they should all he ])lant- ed irregularly. As tiiere should be a greatness in the fjuantity of the plantation, so should there be a great- ness in the view of particular trees ; and therefore, whenever there is a tree remarkably larije, •«!! the otiier trees should be cleared out around it, and some art used to draw the eye towards it, that the specta- tor may be amazed, not only wilh the greatness of the whole distribution of objects, but with the like great appearance of the particular objects themselves. Though every one will allow that straight lines, whether of trees or water, arc contrary to the freedom of this situation ; yet there is so much state in the ap- proach to a great house by a great avenue, that we almost imagine a great avenue to be a necessary ap- pendage to a GOTHIC house : the constant custom of seeins: them toijelher too, makes us more easily vield to that notion. Perhaps other contrivances in planting might be fallen upon, to preserve the state of approach, and yet to avoid the stiffness and symmetry of a regu- lar avenue. There is im attempt of this kind in the walk to the gothic tower at claremont ; but it is awkwardly executed. It consists of an avenue be- twixt two thickets, towards the outlines of which runs a serpentine line, and the trees of the line which shoot farthest into the walk make the avenue. But as the tre^s are thick planted, as the curves are of (Mie measure, and as the outer trees are at too regular dis- tances, it has the effect of a double symmetry ; one of the regular surpentine lines, and another of the regu- lar straight line: by this means it has all the stiti'ness of an ordinary avenue, and none of its majesty. But whatever may be said in favor of the straight line in an avenue to such a house, nothing surely can be said in defence of the straight line of any length in the conduct of water. In such a situation, the water in- stead of going in a long straight line, or in the small serpentine, should go in great and irregular sweeps^

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sometimes rusliiiig for some little space with fury in the straight line ; and at other times resting itself as it were in the calmer curve.

The chief natural defect of a highlandsituation is that, behig generally ill inhabited, it has too much the appearance of dead life : that appearance, added to the vastness of the objects, creates a kind of des- pair in the mind, which considers itself as nothing amidst that stupendous and solitary scene it beholds. In a cheerful situation it does not seem so necessary to call the mind to objects of life ; the gay appear- ance of the ground there, creates that enlivening sen- timent, which in a highland situation must be bor- rowed from the introduction of objects of life. We think with a kind of pleasure of living in juan fer- NANDES, or TINIAN ; though there was not a living soul in the islands ; but we think with horror of living all alone in the pass of killicranky, or the braes

of LOCHABER.

For this reason all the improvements made upon natural objects, and all the objects of art brought into such a garden, ought to have a relation to, and call the mind to a remembrance of, living objects.

In this hght, the view of the castle on the top of DUNEQUECK, at INVERARY, has d much finer etiect than that of a ruin in such a place could have had ; and the thought of the building over the spring, in the way to essen hossen, which has a relation to upland life, has a much better effect than even a tem- ple in such a place to any imaginary deity could have.

For the same reason, in such a situation, what- ever buildings are erected should be in conspicuous places, to create a notion of life and populousness ; and to make them still more observable, they should be of a very white colour, and supported by a body of green behind, to give them the more relief.

Though the httle finishings of art on the face of the ground, would in such a situation be lost ; yet the great efforts of art would please, because that very art is a sign of cultivation and populousness.

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For this reason, though it would be lost labour to- smooth much, or to raise gentle unevennesses on this ground ; yet it would be proper to give it the highest degree of verdure it is capable of; and whenever the ground naturally forms itself into a concave or con- vex form, that concave or convex should be increased or marked by all the assistance of art. There is scarce a nobler appearance whatever, than that of a natural amphitheatre, whether of grass or of wood. BoxHiLL in SURRY, for the convex form ; the banks of the lake at Blenheim, for the dressed concave; and a great sweep of wood in the way to essen HOSSEN, for the uncultivated concave, are the no- blest examples I have any where seen.

From the same desire of shewing the great ef- forts of art, the tops of the mountains should be co- vered with planting. There is nothing more desolate and dreary than the top of one of our mountains : covering it with a plantation will take off from that appearance. In our climate trees seldom grow natu- rally on the tops of mountains; and therefore when we see them, we readily guess they are the produce of art. To point out this more strongly, if the top of a mountain run into a ridge, we might plant it in clumps, detached obviously by art from each other; or if it run to a point, we might make the planta- tion in the form of a regular circle.

For the same reason that objects relating to life should be introduced into tliis situation, and that the appearance of the great efforts of art should not be totally concealed, particular care should be taken to mark and throw open all the natural cascades ; these though they have not a relation to human life, yet by their motion and sound, rouse and animate the attention from that stupor which the view of great and dreary objects creates. There is a fine gradation of inanimate objects up almost into objects of life : a barren hill has a very dead appearance; covered with waving woods, it has a more animated, show ; but if a.

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cascade is seen tumbling down that hill through these woods, it becomes still more enlivened.

I have been told, that in the dreariest situations in SWITZERLAND, some of the gentlemen have, by the management of water, given a beauty to the face of their country, which our gayest gardens have not. Auy one will be ready to believe this, who has gone through the walk of essen hossen. In the lower part of the walk, there have been great stones thrown of design into the brook; in the upper part there have been none : the consequence of this difference is, that the under part is infinitely more animated and agreeable than the upper part.

The two best landscape painters in the world, NICOLAS PoussiN and salvator ROSA, both delighted in painting the great scenes of nature, but they took different routes, salvator rosa chose terrible and noble natural situations ; but his firs were scathed with thunder, or blown over by storms ; his grass was arid ; his streams not rushing down hills, but stagnant in pools; no view of houses, nor scarce any of life, was to be seen : a raven perched on the trunk of a tree, a magician under the shade of a mountain, the murder of a traveller amidst rocks by robbers, were the only signs of life in his landscapes. l*oussiN, on the other hand, added all the beauty of verdure, all the vivaciiy of water, to his great situ- ations ; and interspersed amongst them not only living objects, but at the bottoms and on the sides of the hills, views of temples and palaces of a Babylonish architecture, which by their uncouth appearance cor- responded to tlie sentiment he means to create. In the situation of the one we can suppose a philosopher or a hero to have lived ; the s>ituations of the other, we cannot suppose any thing but a demon to have inhabited. Perhaps the landscapes of poussin are the best instructors which a gardener of genius and taste can follow, for this first branch of the natural division of grounds.

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Second The next situation is what I may be al- Situation. lowed to call a romantic one : the sen- timent to be created by it, is that of composure of mind, and perhaps even of melancholy.

The view of a highland country, if desert, cre- ates a disagreeable horror; the view of a romantic si- tuation, if retired, creates an agreeable one. The cause of the difference is this: in a very great situa- tion, the country is so vast as to bear no proportion to the littleness of a single person ; he is sensible of the comparison ; and, when alone, falls into a kind of despair. Whereas, in a romantic retired situation, the parts not being so great, there is no dispropor- tion betwixt it and the single inhabitant; he is apt to consider it as no more than subservient to him, and that thought, with the natural melancholy which such a situation creates in him, makes him desire to see none other in it.

For that reason, in the first highland disposition of grounds, it was necessary to call the mind to life and motion ; but in this romantic situation on the contrary, it is proper, in order to compose the mind,, to remove it in a good measure from both.

For this reason, the views of ruins are much more proper for this situation, than those of houses intended for use; at the same time, if it is necessary to have buildings of the latter kind, they ought to be of the GOTHIC architecture. With regard to the architecture of ruins, they are full as proper to be of the GRECIAN form ; for as nothing is more cheerful than the elegance of a Grecian building when en- tire, so scarce any thing strikes with a more pleasing melancholy than such a building in ruins. Its once gay condition, makes its present state more mournful. The buildings which are not intended for use, should be such as are subservient to thepurposeseither of re- ligion or grief; as a cloister, a chapel, a spire, a hermi- tage ; or a pyramid, an obelisk, a monument, SfC. With regard to the colour of all these buildings, it ought to be far from the dazzling white of tliose in the for-

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mer situation : stone of a dark colour, or brick, would perhaps be more proper ; but as these, particularly the last, are disagreeable, the dazzling stone might he concealed by the mounting of ivy or moss along the walls.

Corresponding to the same taste in the buildings, the plantations should consist of evergreen groves, and the trees be set very near to each other. Our ancestors the druids inhabited thick groves. One of the finest passages in lucan, is the religious horror which seized CiESAR's array in cuttingd^jwn a^cred grove; and all the magical diescriptions of tasso pass in such places. The closeness of the trees to each other, will produce a mel^ichdy whistling of the wind, whicfe the more open method of planting does not. Those trees should be planted in the quincunx order, arrd sometimes produce long straight walks, with broad and high arches at the top, like the inside of a gothic cathedral. The quincunx order in planting, from the sameness, never rouses the at- tention except on first sight ; and a long arched walk, from its dimness and length, composes the mind at once to meditations, at the same time that the simpli- city of its figure prevents the mind from being over xlisturbed in them.

To these solemn walks the river should be made to contribute a solemn silence. For this reason it should be protected from the winds, all obstructions should be removed from the course of its current, and it should be deepened, and made to run more smoothly thaw it is naturally Inclined to do. It should he made to lose itself at the end in a thick wood : the fancy naturally pierces into these recesses, and follows the river with awe in its unknown course. For the same reason, this silent river should be shaded with trees hanging over it: all the world is sensible of the beauty of the weeping willow hanging over a smooth stream, so that the banks ot it cannot be seen. There was a fine instance ot this beauty on the banks of MR. pelham's serpentine river at esher; but as

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most of that place was intended for cheerfulness, these nillows are now cut down, and the banks smoothed into a more cheerful green. I am sensible that the straight line, especially in water, is almost always disagreeable; yet if that line be at all pardon- able, perhaps it is pardonable here. The serpentine line contains so great variety as to disturb the mind continually in its meditations; whereas a melancholy mind is flattered in its indolence, by saunteiing along the sides of a canal that is always the same. For the same reason, the small streams should be made to run purling over pebbles, and the cascades be made to fall in one regular sheet, instead of being broken by obstructions. It is generally thought that cascades create an enlivening sentiment, and no doubt they do, when left to their own natural irregularity, or when that irregularity is increased ; but when they are brought over in regular sheets, the continued same- ness of the noise, and motion, and look, composes the mind also to an even continued tenor of thought. We love to read or sleep by the side of a purling brook, or a smooth cascade ; but we are roused as at the sound of a trumpet, by the sight of a rough cata- ract.

It is diflTicult to give directions for the manage- ment of the ground in such situations: smoothing into a flat is alwajs against taste; and yet perhaps here it would flatter the indolence of the mind. Na- ture at least seems to favor this, by generally throwing t!ie bottoms of such situations into a flat ; and surely throwing the grounds into pleasing irregularities would amuse too much. The wide bottoms, which should be exposed in a highland situation, should here be concealed ; nor should tlie open lawns of a cheer- ful situation be admitted. The best disposition is to throw the ground into smooth walks, followhig the course of the waters and hills: a solitary walk in a deep valley, by the side of a sniooth water, and co- vere<l by the shades of the neighbouring hills and woods, is the very region of melancholy.

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On the banks of the high parts of the meuse in FRANCE, I have seen convents around which, not surely from the rules of art or taste, but merely from the natural feeling of mankind, almost every rule here mentioned has been followed.

Third I The third situation is that of a cham- Situation. \ paign rich country, full of gentle in- equalities.

Such a country is perhaps the most agreeable; it is generally the best cultivated. The sentiment which it creates is cheerfulness; and tiierefore in a garden in this country, the disposition and assemblage should be such as may still farther carry on that sen- timent. Perhaps instead of all other rules for such a situation, it would be enough to say that KENT, who beyond all others loved and made use of it, should be studied and followed.

That great designer made the grounds 1o rise and fall more gently into one another, that even in such a situation they naturally are inclined ^to do. For this purpose he deepened the sinkings and raised the swellings of the natural inequalities; these :ie made to consist of winding surfaces, continually vary- ing in their figures, lengths, and heights. The chief beauty of this situation lies in its numerous inequali- ties ; and therefore, to mark those better, on the tops of the small unevennesses he planted single trees ; and on the summits of the rising grounds, clumps of them; but in the slopes of the one, or on the sides of the other, neitlier single trees, nor clumps, were to be seen; the sinking of these first, and the sides of these last, on the contrary, he smoothed into the finest shaven turf. All the rich prospects ot the country he threw open, so as to make them in ii man- ner a part of the garden. If a walk was to be !ed along a summit, he made it run in the form of an open terrace, to command all the prospects aroinid ; if to the top of a hill he led the walk mounting round llie whole of it, so as to make the prosj eet vary at almost every step ; if it was lo be led along the side

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of a river, he ordered it to run in a careless line, be- twixt the banks ot the river on the one hand, and a Hne of trees, flowers, and flowering shrubs, equally careless on the other. To make the care- lessness of both appear the stronger too, the walk sometimes quitted the river altogether, and lost itself in a thicket; and the hne of planting, on its part again, sometimes ran betwixt the walk and the river, and at other times made a stop, and left a vacuity altogether. But this walk, careless and undesigned as it seemed, continually led to some building or place of repose, or lake with an island in it, joined to the laud by a CHINESE bridge.

The river, if of a size to be under command, he led along in the same easy manner in a serpentine form ; sometimes losing itself in the appearance of a thicket, and sometimes in that of a lake ; but for the most part keeping its own pleasing meander. Where there was a considerable sweep, he planted a tree of a fine form at the point of ground running farthest into the water, in order to mark that point more strongly. The banks of this river he sometimes adorned with a small temple, sometimes with a grotto, and at other times with a neat but elegant cottage; in the designs of which last buildings he was lucky beyond others. The most beautiful way for a river such as this to lose itself, would be under a palladia^ bridge, support- ed behind by a grove of evergreens, planted of differ- ent heights above each other. The best serpentine riverjof its size I have seen, is that of lord Burling- ton ; and the best decorations of such a river I have seen, are those in the elysian fields of lord cob- ham.

The planting in such a place should consist of trees of the most beautiful forms and colours, both of home and exotic kinds. They should be planted in the loose and open manner; so that both the beauty of each particular tree, and the beauty of the ground they cover, may be seen ; or if the particular roughness of a hill forces the gardener to plant them

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- in thickets, he should if possible make the colours run into and lose themselves in each other, like the dies of the rainbow. As this is the situation in which the bea ity of single trees may be best seen, so it is \iere chiefly that the connoisseur in the science of trees should exert his knowledge and taste.

The buildings should consist most of the Chi- nese and GRECIAN architecture ; and in this last the simplicity and elegance of the ionic order, should be preferred to the others. A Chinese buildhig on the summit of a hill, not only agrees with the airy situation of the place, but carries our thoughts to the sultry climates of china. A Gre- cian temple on the side of a hill, or on the banks of a river, transports our fancy to the temperate and delightful vallies and mounts of old Greece.

Fourth I The last situation is that of a dead flat. Situation. \ As such a situation ot itself raises little or no sentiment, so the whole fancy of the gardener should be employed in carryins; the thought, by the parade of art, from attending to this defect of nature. The perfection of the other gardens lies in following nature; there is often a necessity in this one of going directly against her : and as art in the others was for the most part to be concealed ; so here, on the con- trary, it is sometimes with affectation to be exposed. The ENGLISH in such a situation attempt to humour nature; the French in such a situation at- tempt to hide her. The first, from their too great love to her, expose even her weakness ; the last, from their contempt of her, conceal even her beauties. If these two tastes were to make concessions to each other, perhaps the point of perfection might lie be- twixt the two.

In a small flat, the serpentine rive-, the open planting, the lake and island, the moulding the flat into the gentle unevennesses of Kent, have a rural and cheerful aspect. Of this last particularly, there is a fine instance in Kent's plantation at the back of the house at chiswick, compared with the phleg-

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niatic plantation of brtdgeman on the same side of of the garden. But these contrivances, though pro- per for a small plan, are too few and simple for a great one. Their repetition tires. By their open- ness too, they make us more sensible of the greatness of the Hat and of the defect of nature ; for which reason, though these may be proper contrivanc«s to join different parts of the garden together, yet, there is no help for it, we must frankly call in the assist- ance of art to make the chief parts of the garden. For this reason, bosquets ^ statues, vases, trees cut into great arches, jets d'eau, cascades forced up and made to tumble down an hundred steps, regular basins, peristyles, temples, long vistas, the star planta- tion &c. are here in taste. All the magnificence of VERSAILLES, without its conceits, or its too-often-re- peated symmetry should be admitted. To supply the defect of natural prospect, the walks should ter- minate in artificial vistas; and in this light, perhaps even painted cascades and buildings, as practised by some of our English gardeners, if pardonable any where, are pardonable here. To get too, as far as can be, the advantage of natural prospects, the artifi- cial mounts of the flat DUTCH gardens should here be introduced ; and even to create the appearance of sncli mounts \Nherc there are none, the trees should i 1 some places be planted in clumps, or in avenues; tile lower species of trees in the first rows, and the liighcr kind rising towering behind them, so as to make the stranger think he is walking round a hill, or between two rising banks. As there is but little pleasure to the imagination, arising from this situa- tion itself, so it should be contrived to give as much pleasure to the senses as possible. For this reason, the flowers should be sown in beds and parterres, to be the more obviously seen, and to throw out their sweets more strongly into the air. Fruits of the finest kinds should be spread through the compartments, the flowering shrubs should be planted in clumps, and assorted in their colours and flowers with all the

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nicety of a weli-niade-up flower-pot. To strike with tlie stronger surprise, the trees should be all exotics, and of the rarest kinds ; and to create greater va- riety, though the choese form, from its fantastical appearance, and the Corinthian order, from its magnificence, be in general the properest for such an adonied garden ; yet buildings of all species under the sun, that have dignity in them, should here find place.

In short, every agreeable object that creates sur- prise, and that exhibits a view of magniticent art,should enter into the composition of such a garden. It is more proper when in the neighbourhood of a great city, and thrown open to alt the world, than when in a remote province ; and for that reason, some ot the FRENCH gardens have an excuse which those at STO"VVE have not.

A garden like this is a kind of fairy land: it is in comparison of other gardens, what an opera is m comparison of a tragedy; neither of them should be judged of by the ordinary rules of experience, or taste ; but by the capricious ones of variety and fancy.

"^If these rules are just with regard to the four capital and distinct situations of grounds, it will be no difficult matter to apply them to all tiie variety of grounds, of which situations for gardens generally consist. It is but seldom that a situation coiisistent with a single person's conveniency, is so precisely and particularly marked as to suit only one of the four situations I have mentioned ; on the contrary grounds generally consist of several of these situations, mixed and running into each other. In this case, the taste of the gardener will be shewn, in proportioning his distribution and assemblage to that particular de- gree of resemblance, which the part he is then laying out bears to one or other of the four capital situa- tions.

Nor in doing this need the gardener be confined if his ground is very various, by the fear of too quick a

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22

transition from one sentiment to another. The gardens of VERSAILLES are, not improperly speaking, a very large knot of very small gardens, laid all by the side of each other, raising the coiitinuaily-repeated senti- ment of surjnise ; yet these offend not from the qnick- uess of the transition from one compartment to ano- ther, but because in some compartments no setitiment at all is created, and in others it is too trivial to join in alliance with any sentiment of dignity whatever.

Could we suppose a great monarch lavishing his treasures, as it is said the emperor of china has done, in beautifying the face of nature; the most fortunate disposition of grounds for an attempt towards per- fection in this art, would be where there was a con- siderable flat adjoining to the palace ; where that Hat ran into gentle unevennesses; where these un- evenesses lost themselves in a romantic retired situ- ation, and where that romantic situation again open- ed and extended itself into a view of awful, mag- nificent, and simple nature.

It is a frequent error in our ENGLISH gardens,^ that from the marble, and gold, and magniticence of a palace, we often step at once into all the wildness of the country : the transition from the extreme height of art, to the extreme simplicity of nature, is too strong. The french method of parterres, though too stitf, is perhaps preferable: but at any rate, a flat piece of ground laid out, if not with all the stiff'ness, yet with all tlie ormiments of art, is the proper transition from a palace to a garden. If this again rmis imperceptibly into the appearance of the country, then loses itself as it goes farther from the house in a retirement, and in the end swells into a view of great and simple nature ; such a succession would be agreeable both to the natural progress of things, and the natural current of our ideas. Per- haps it is not too bold to say, that such a garden,, sliding by easy steps from the highest magnificence of art into the highest magnificence of nature, would be perfect.

END.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA

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