HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GARDENING 7 



Milton, became tlie germ of many a palatial garden given np to the 

 tender mercies of the artist. Many a garden emulated that of Eden, 



which 



''Crowns with its enclosure green. 

 As with a rural mound the champaign head 

 Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides 

 With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild. 

 Access denied * * * * * *- " 



12. Nor is it at all surprising that this gorgeous picture seized upon 

 the imagination of the more enthusiastic landscajDC gardeners, roused to 

 exertion by the mixed criticism and ridicule of the leading spirits of 

 the age. The result was the establishment of a new school in art, which, 

 in course of time, came to be recognized as the English style, and 

 which, according to Gray, " is the only taste we can call our own, the 

 only proof we can give of original talent in matters of pleasm-e." 



13. Loudon and Wise were among the earliest innovators, and are 

 highly praised in the "Spectator" for the manner in which they laid 

 out Kensington Gardens. Bridgman followed, hewing down many a 

 verdurous peacock and juniper lion. Kent, the inventor of the ha-ha, 

 followed, and broke up the distinction of garden and park ; and Brown 

 (Capability Bro^vn, as he was called) succeeded him with round clumps 

 and boundary belts, artificially winding rivers and lakes, with broad 

 di'ives terminating in summer-houses. Brown is admitted to have 

 been a man of genius, and astonished the gardening yrorld by the 

 Bkilful manner in which he arrested the river and formed the beautiful 

 lake at Blenheim ; but he could not be everywhere, and he found many 

 ignorant imitators. Sh* Walter Scott tells an amusing story of one of 

 these conceited pretenders who was employed by Lord Abercorn in 

 laying out the grounds at Duddingston. The house embraces noble 

 views of Craigmillar Castle on the one side, backed by the Pentlands ; 

 on the other, by Ai'tlxur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags; and on a third 

 the eye is carried past the precipitous rocks on which stands the Castle 

 of Edinburgh, across the rich plains of Midlothian : the improver con- 

 ceived it to be his duty to block out every glimpse of this noble land- 

 scape. Duddingston Loch is a beautiful piece of water, lying at the foot 

 of Arthur's Seat : he shut out the lake also, and would have done as 

 much for the surrounding hills, but they were too grand objects to be so 

 treated. Lord Abercorn laughed at his absurdities, but was too indo- 

 lent to interrupt his vagaries. 



14. It is not surprising, perhaps, that the opponents of the old style 

 rushed, at a very early period to the opposite extreme ; fine old gardens 



