1Intro&uctiou n 



In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon 

 Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plain. 



A happy rural seat of various view : 

 Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm. 



Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks 

 Grazing the tender herb. 



• • • • • • • 



Another side, umbrageous grots and caves 



Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine 



Lays forth her purpling grape, and gently creeps 

 Luxuriant; meanwhile murmuring waters fall 



Down the slope hills dispersed, or in a lake, 



That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned 



Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.'' 



(By the middle of the eighteenth century the flower 

 of this Renaissance of natural landscape gardening was 

 in full bloom.X Thomas Whately, who died in 1772, 

 writes thus: 



"The English in such a situation attempt to humour 

 nature ; the French in such a situation attempt to 

 hide her." 



(And Abbe Delille about the same time taught as 

 sound ideas of the art as could be found in the most 

 modem books on the subject:^ 



"Rapin has sung Gardens of the regular style, 

 and the monotony attached to the great regularity 

 has passed from the subject to the poem. The 



• Paradise Lost, Book IV. 



