ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



263 



gress in rural architecture and rural taste, 

 has been more rapid within the last five 

 years than in any country in Europe, (Eng- 

 land hardly excepted,) in fifty ; and where 

 his own Theory of Horticulture is better 

 known and far more widely circulated than 

 in Great Britain. We do not state these 

 facts in the spirit of boasting, but because 

 we know sturdy, honest John Bull will not 

 respect JoNATiiAN till he finds he is respect- 

 able. 



Our friend, the late Mr. Loudon, was. 

 Dr. LiNDLEY tells us, a " crotchetty man." 

 Yes, his crotchets, that found little favor in 

 the eyes of the latter, were these — that he 

 was no church-and-state man ; that he be- 

 lieved in the largest liberty of opinion ; 

 and that he was an ardent and unflinching 

 advocate of the rights of the laboring clas- 

 ses. In all his works we see most strongly 

 marked his desire to raise the British work- 

 ing man, so long degraded by the sway of 

 caste, to his proper and natural position. 

 To this end, he not only designed and pub- 

 lished plans of cottages and grounds cal- 

 culated to improve the social, phj^sical and 

 moral condition of the working class, but he 

 held up to public censure those in high 

 places, who forced their dependants to live 

 in houses more comfortless than those of 

 their domestic animals ; while he commen- 

 ded in his periodicals those who respected 

 the natural rights of man, and understood 

 the moral obligations attached to the pos- 

 session of large wealth. 



Mr. Loudon's taste was by no means 

 perfect in landscape gardening or architec- 

 ture. (It would be difficult to say whose 



is.) We have expressly stated in our Land- 

 scape Gardening that, " as an artist he is 

 deficient in imagination," but we consider 

 him as being the most philosophical writer 

 on the subject that any country has pro- 

 duced. He never suggested an improve- 

 ment in grounds without giving a good and 

 sufficient reason for it, and he did more to 

 popularise and disseminate general ideas 

 of correct taste, than any other writer 

 whatever. Indeed, his works are so well 

 known and appreciated in America, that 

 this explanation seems almost superfluous. 



That our " Historical Sketches " of land- 

 scape gardening in Britain, are not satis- 

 factory, in the eyes of Dr. Lindley, we re- 

 gret. Luckily for our reputation, it is the 

 portion of our work which has no claim to 

 originality, and as it was entirely compiled 

 from standard English works, the " errors 

 as to fact " must be sent elsewhere for cor- 

 rection. 



Dr. Lindley intimates truly, that English 

 works on Landscape Gardening rarely or 

 never reach a second edition. We are 

 glad to be able to say that a third edition 

 of our volume will soon be put to press, al- 

 though the last edition was one of double 

 the usual number. We state this, not as a 

 proof of the merits of the work, which 

 abounded with defects in the first edition, 

 and is not free from them in the second, 

 but as the best possible illustration that 

 there is already a much larger class in the 

 United States, alive to the importance and 

 value of rural beauty and rural improve- 

 ment than exists at the present time in 

 England. 



Large Peaches. — The Ohio Cultivator 

 speaks of a seedling from the Lemon Cling, 

 a very handsome, red, yellow-fleshed peach, 

 the fruit of which measured more than a 



foot in circumference. One weighed four- 

 teen ounces, and four together weighed two 

 pounds fourteen ounces. This, though not 

 the largest ever raised, is unusually large. 



