LANDSCAPE GARDENING IN NEW-ENGLAND. 



the most fascinating, while it acknowledges itself capable of becoming the most ruinously 

 expensive. 



Although modern writers recognise two grand divisions or styles of this art, the geo- 

 metrical (or ancient) style, and the natural (or modern) sttjle; yet here, as in other fine 

 arts, we find many variations and modifications, or schools of style; as, for instance, 

 where the laws of taste are made to conform to the more stringent code of convenience, 

 econom}' or utility. 



Probably more of this prevails in New-England than elsewhere; for here, more than in 

 other lands, utilit}^ has become one of the secular deities of popular worship. In this sec- 

 tion of the country, whenever a contest takes place between economical advantage and 

 good taste, the latter is sure to find some apology for making a hasty retreat. 



It does not concern us at present to inquire what may be done with a ducal revenue of 

 half a million pounds sterling, as at Chatsworth, in England, or with an almost princely 

 fortune upon the shores of the Hudoon. With scarcely an exception, here, in New-Eng- 

 land, operations in landscape gardening are, and are likely to be, hemmed in by limits so 

 narrow as almost to exclude the applicability of the term. From a half acre to some seven 

 or eight acres, is the utmost extent of territory' that a genuine Yankee, though a million- 

 aire, will consent to appropriate to merely ornamental purposes. Even after having forc- 

 ed himself to acquiesce in suchlike "wasteful" embellishments, he does all the work 

 grudgingly, counting, (and if a profane man, cursing) the cost, at every step that his labor 

 progresses. 



Again, the taste of New-England people generally, for the beautiful and picturesque in 

 rural scenery, is either vitiated, or totally unailtivated. Hence, the great mass of the 

 people prefer symmetry, stiff formalit}^ straight lines, and the geometrical forms of the 

 ancient or artificial style of laying out grounds. Nearly all our first class places in Yan- 

 keedom, are so arranged. Another evil arises from a vulgar proneness to an ostentatious 

 display of riches. And as costl}' architecture strikes the careless eye more forcibly than 

 scenery, the man ennobled by quickly acquired wealth, plants his gorgeous palace upon a 

 bleak and bald site, of which the ' surroundings' would be admirably in keeping for a 

 hovel. The whole strength of the proprietor is spent upon house and furniture. Mean- 

 while the brassjr glare of things provokes criticism, and men find themselves incapable of 

 concealing their disgust at three striking incongruities, — the house itself, the flaunting ig- 

 norance of the animate nature within it, and the meagre nakedness of the inanimate nature 

 around it. 



Some of these places afford a ridiculous exhibiton of the proprietor's insane passion for 

 sj'mmetry. Agate or a tree here, another there; the second obviously designed for no 

 other purpose than to match, or geometrically balance the first. And so of every walk, 

 and of every shrub or flower, throughout the place. Every angle is a stiff right angle; 

 every row is formal and straight; every plant of a row equi-distant, of equal form and 

 equal size. A certain starchy smartness seems to preside over the whole place. Every- 

 thing is so prim, so square, so sharp, we almost expect to see the house leap from its 

 foundations and fly away. All seems to have for its object a display of the power of art, 

 or rather the superiority of quick-made wealth, to the wisdom which guides the opera- 

 tions of nature. Such, or similar, have ever been the effeorts of the infanc}^ of taste. 



Many of our country seats have been planned by the wives and daughtei-s of the pro- 

 prietors. These estimable ladies, full of that confidence which ignorance inspires, piquing 

 selves on tlieir exquisite taste in matters of interior decoration, imagine that they 

 Uy competent, (perhaps they are!) to guide and direct the embellishment of out 



