IN THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 9 



arches in carpenter's work surrounding' the garden — on each 

 arch a turret with belly enough to receive a cage of bii-ds — over 

 every space between the arches some other little figure with 

 broad plates of round-coloured glass, gilt, for the sun to play 

 upon — his favourite fountain, with its bottom finely paved, and 

 with images, the sides likewise — and withal embellished with 

 coloured glass and such thing's of lustre ; all these features and 

 more besides, preserved from existing taste or carried to a greater 

 extent, while they surprise us as coming from such a man, show 

 clearly the nature of the taste laid down by Mountain and advo- 

 cated by Lawson and othei's of the same date. I should have 

 mentioned, that in all the points established by Mountain, Law- 

 son fully agrees. I have only selected some of those which he 

 notices, but which do not appear in Mountain's work. Perhaps, 

 however, the following woodcut from Lawson will speak for 

 itself, as delineating his chef-d'ceuvre, the more especially as 

 an explanation of the portions indicated by letters is attached 

 to it. 



So ends this explanation. And, as in the case of Mountain's 

 specimen, without assuming this woodcut to be anything more 

 than a general representation of the principles adopted in laying 

 out grounds at that period, we have enough, in conjunction with the 

 letter-press descriptions given in the same and other works, to 

 enable a person to form a just idea of the whole system. Ima- 

 gine yourself looking down from a window in the mansion upon 

 ground laid out in this manner. Grant that in a few cases, 

 although but a few, there may have been terraces and balustrades 

 and steps : except to an eye that can delight in nothing but angu- 

 lar forms and combinations, no scene could possibly appear more 

 unnatural. But when you stretch your gaze beyond the herbers, 

 and alleys, and walks, and oblong beds, and mathematically ar- 

 ranged knots, and the heavy garden wall, to the undulating sur- 

 face of the park studded with noble trees, varied by moving 

 objects, and rendered more beautiful by the stream or the lake — 

 the contrast must have been more painful still to a man of true 

 taste. He would be struck with wonder at the thought that the 

 inmates of such a mansion could go on viewing such a prospect 

 for years and years in perfect contentment, without an effort to 

 create beautiful scenes immediately about the walls of their 

 home. It is true that Bacon, however encumbered by tawdri- 

 ness and littlenesses his views were in part, ventured to throw 

 out ideas far beyond the notions of his age — ideas which fairly 

 entitled him to be termed the prophet of landscape gardening. 

 In its main principles his essay presents almost as great a con- 

 trast to the then existing system as was found in Nature herself. 

 At all events the superiority of those principles is too manifest 



