2CG 



scape gardening, ami his excellcut natural taste was refiucd to the "utmost 

 by his intimacy with Mr. Richard Payne Kiiight, of Downton, and by the study 

 necessary for the attacks they both so spiritedly made on the glaring faults of 

 Kent, of Brown,* and of Eepton. 



The great feature of the 'Whitfield estate is the abundance of the oak 

 timber it produces. Oak woods hang on every hill ; oak trees abound in every 

 vale ; they are thickly scattered throughout the lawns ; they even invade the 

 pleasure grounds ; and as a matter of course give their character to every 

 landscape. Now, on oak scenery, all authorities unite in praise to the uttermost. 

 "It is a happiness," says Gilpin, "to the lovers of the picturesque that this 

 noble plant is as useful as it is beautiful. It is confessedly the most pictu- 

 resque tree in itself, and the most accommodating in composition. It refuses 

 no subject either in natural or artificial landscape;" and Strutt says, "Foremost 

 in dignity and grandeur, the oak stands preeminent, and, like the Hon among 

 beasts, is the undoubted lord of the forest. Beauty united with strength 

 characterises all its parts. The leaves elegant in their outline, are strongly 

 ribbed, and firmly attached to the spray, which, although thin and excursive, is 

 yet bold and determined in its angles, whilst the abrupt and tortuous irregu- 

 larity of its massive branches admirably contrasts with the general richness 

 and density of its clustered foliage ;" and so on, authority after authority 

 might be quoted. But all these descriptions refer to the oak when advanced in 

 age, when size brings out the contortions of its moss-covered branches, and a 

 massive trunk gives a grandeur, indicative of boldness and strength. These 

 splendid word paintings of the supreme picturesqueness of oak scenery, it must 



* Lancelot Brown was a man of the highest reputation as a landscape 

 gardener in the middle and latter end of the 18 th century. He had great 

 taste, and though now thought formal himself, was the first to set aside the 

 stiff formality of earlier times. From his frequent use of the phrase "This 

 spot has great capabilities," he got the name of " Capability Brown." It became 

 the fashion to employ him everywhere, and his dictate became law. 



The poet Cowper introduces his name ironically in a well-known passage — 



" Lo ! he comes ! 

 Th' omnipotent magician Brown appears ! 

 Down falls the venerable pile, the abode 

 Of our forefathers, a grave whiskered race 

 But tasteless."— Toi/c ///. 



But it was Brown's fate also to go out of fashion, or rather let us say, 

 to yield to a better and still less formal taste. 



Sir Uvedale Price never lost an opportunity of attacking him. One 



amusing instance of his sarcasms may be given. A rumour got abroad that 



George III. had given Brown leave to crop the oaks in AYindsor Park, on which 



Sir Uvedale wrote the following caustic lines : — 



" England thy sons their lessoned freedom mourn, 

 Windsor thy parks and forests are all shorn, 

 What various evils from his petty tricks, 

 Whose taste was formed by Brown, by Bute hia politics," 



