141 



After almost half a century passed in the Parks and Gard 



of England 



d during much of that time having been profi 



sionally consulted on their improvement, I am fully convinced 

 that Fashion has frequently misled Taste, l>y confounding the 



scenery o 



fArt 



d Nature. And while I have acceded to th 



combination of two words, Landscape and Gardenin 



distinct objects as the picture and its frai 



yet tl 



w 



of Nature, called Landscape, and that of a Garden 

 ferent as their uses; one is to please 



The Scenery 



e y 



tlier 



s dif- 



is for 



the comfort an 



pation 



f man 



one 



ad 



wild, and may be 



to animals in the wildest state of natu 



while the 



other is appropriated to man in the highest stale of civilization 



We therefore find, that although Painters may 



and refinement 



desp 



Gardens as subjects for the pencil, yet Poets, Philos 



phers, and Statesmen, have always enjoyed and described th 



pure delights of Garden Scenery. 



A Garden, as the appendage to a place of such importance 

 as Ashridge, is no trifling consideration : and it ought well to 



be weighed, before we sacrifice one of the most splendid and 



o 



costly works of Art to the reigning rage for Nature, and all that 

 is deemed natural. 



It will perhaps be said, that where we work with Nature's 

 materials, the production should imitate Nature: but it might, 

 with equal propriety, be asserted, that a house being built of 

 rocks and stones should imitate a cavern. 



> 



Let us then begin by defining what a Garden is, and what 

 it ought to be. It is a piece of ground fenced olF from cattle, 





