EELVIDEKE GAKDE>'S. 



CHAPTER V. 



ON GABDENING STYLES AND GARDEN PLANS. 

 124. It should be the object of Art to render Nature still more charmini,' : 

 " For Jfature ne'er deserts the wise and pure ; 

 Ko plot so narrow be, but Nature there, 

 No waste so vacant, but may well employ 

 Each faculty of sense, and keep the heart 

 Awake to love and beauty." 



Not, however, that Art should ever strive to imitate so as to be mistaken 

 for Nature ; this, if possible, is not desirable,— it would rob Art of half its 

 merit, without attaining either beauty or grandeur ; for, after all, the 

 gardener operates on a very limited scale, even when the widest scope 

 is given to his genius. A gai-den is a work of Art, and Art ought to be 

 avowedly present in every part of it. The meandering path, ^^anding through 

 tangled thickets, beneath the spreading cedar, of which the ''lichen staineth 

 the stem," is as much a work of art as the highly-embellished geometrical 

 garden, the architectural terraces and vases which overlook it, or the foun- 

 tain which occupies its centre. Nature, in dishabille, is beautiful in a wood, 

 at home on the bleak moor and inigged mountain,— often admissible in a park, 

 but would be incongruous and misplaced in a garden ; and where such 

 features have been introduced, on the pretence of making "natural gardens/' 



