237 



<c 



better executed ; and the task deferred to declining \ care, i> 



"frequently deferred for ever; or at best performed with 

 " languor and indifference. 



Twenty years have now passed away, and it 



P 



that life may be extended twenty years longer, but from 



my feelings more probable that it will not reach as many 



weeks; and therefore I may now perhaps he writing the list 



Fragment of my Labours. I have lived to see many o 



ans beautifully realized, but many more, cruelly marred ; 

 sometimes by false oeconomy ; sometimes by injudicious < tra- 



vagance. I have also lived to reach that period, when the 

 improvement of Houses and Gardens is more delightful to me, 

 than that of Parks or Forests, Landscapes, or distant prosp< ts. 



I can now expect to produce little that is new, I have there- 

 fore endeavoured to collect and arrange the observations of my 

 past life : this has formed the amusement of the last two winters. 



betwixt intervals of spasm, from a disease incurable, during 



which time I have called up (by my pencil) th 



scenes of which I was most proud, and marshalled them 

 before me; happy in many pleasing remembrances, winch 

 revive the sunshine of my days, though sometimes clouded by 

 the recollection of friends removed, of scenes destroyed, and of 

 promised happiness changed to sadness. 



The most valuable lesson now left me to communicate is this : 

 I am convinced that the delight I have always taken in Land- 



scapes and Gardens, without any reference to their Quantity 



Appropriation, or without caring whether they were Forests 





* 



