124 ON ORNAMENTAL GARDENING, 



declared against every right line and right angle, and against 

 every perpendicular form of Dutch or Italian gardening. 



Soon were the venerable avenues uprooted — the airy terrace 

 and the verdant slope levelled with the general surface of the 

 ground; every nicely-clipped hedge or arcade, pyramid or globe, 

 were quickly banished from the lawn and gardens ; right lines, 

 whether of roads, or walks, or fences, were diverted into regularly 

 flowing sweeps ; the mansion which had been for years partially 

 shaded and veiled by trees, was set out and exposed on a smooth 

 and closely shaven lawn; hedge-row trees were exchanged for 

 insulated clumps dotted over hill and dale ; and straight and visi- 

 ble fences, gave way to crooked and invisible Ha ha's ! 



Thus the regularity of the old style was excluded, to admit the 

 irregularity of the new; a change too recklessly made, and which 

 has proved, in many instances, only a change from one kind of 

 sameness to another fully as tedious and uninteresting. 



Nor was the new style an imitation of what it was presumed to 

 be founded on, namely, the painter's ideas of the most beautiful 

 or most picturesque combinations of land, wood, and water. The 

 opinion of the first reformers appeared to be, that, to depart as 

 much as possible from the old style, by introducing irregularity, 

 was all that was wanted to give the new scenery a truly and nat- 

 ural character. 



The new style received the title of "English gardening;" and 

 certainly there were some very perfect things of the kind exe- 

 cuted in different parts of the kingdom, not, however, by clearing 

 all the old features away, buf by a judicious reservation of part 

 of them, and not by an implicit adoption of every suggestion of 

 the reformers, but by a tasteful rejection of many of their dog- 

 mas. 



It is perfectly true, that, though the guiding principles of com- 

 position of both the painter and the landscape gardener are the 

 same, there must necessarily be a great difference in the execution ; 

 the one endeavours to gratify the present, the other future gene- 

 rations. The painter can brighten his lights, deepen his shadows, 

 give play to his outlines, and mellow his tints at pleasure, so as to 

 preserve a well ballanced display of light and shade; all his 

 objects whether on the foreground, in the middle distance, or in 

 the off-scape, he can dispose as seems to him best. The height, 

 and distance, and form of the mountains ; the character and extent 

 of water; the very forms of the clouds, and tints of the sky, are 



