56 GARDEN MAXAGEMENT. 



picturesque groups in the park should harmonize with the gardenescjue groups 

 on the lawn, and apparent extent and congruous variety be obtained. The 

 picturesque style is only admissible beside Swiss cottages or rural residences, 

 and can never be made to harmonize with the broad square outlines of any more 

 imposing style of architecture. The worst possible arrangement is to surround 

 the house with picturesque objects, with the highly-embellished geometrical 

 garden farther oflf ; and yet we sometimes see a tangled thicket of furze-broom, 

 thorns, and brambles, up to the very door, with a ravelled skein of wild roses, 

 sweet-brier, and honeysuckle peeping in at the windows ; while the highly- 

 dressed garden is placed entirely out of view. This arrangement, however 

 romantic, is altogether opposed to correct taste, and incompatible with the 

 comfortable enjoyment of either house or garden. 



137. The practice of planting the park and lawn so as to constitute an 

 indivisible and perfect whole, may be objected to, because it practises a 

 deception on the eye of the beholder. Burke, on the other hand, remarks, 

 "that no work of art can be great but as it deceives." Without contending 

 ver)^ strenuously for the entire truth of this sentiment, it must be admitted 

 that it is not only allowable, but one of the chief merits of Art, to conceal 

 the modes by which its eflFects are produced. If it is apparent that a splash 

 of white paint is used to represent water or moonhght in a landscape, the 

 merit of the picture must be of the most mediocre description. When we 

 look at a good painting, we think nothing of brushes, easels, and colours, but 

 only of the marvellous beauty and truthfulness to nature of the representation. 

 The canvas speaks, but it speaks to us only of light and shade ; of depth, 

 softness, and intensity of tone, and apparent extent, which ai-e all admired ; 

 but the mode of their production is concealed. Bald, bare outhnes and sharp h-- 

 defined boundaries are hidden on canvas by a dash of paint, and in the 

 natural landscape by a group of shrubs and trees ; and the latter deception, if 

 such it can be called, is as consistent with the highest principles of artistic 

 taste as the former. While, therefore, an occasional boundary-line, where 

 the prospect is commanding, may be visible, as a rule, it should be at least 

 partially concealed. — D.T.F. 



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