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The Dutch imitated the French. The 

 English were the first who felt the ab- 

 surdity of this style. Addison attacked 

 it in his famous Essays on Gardening, 

 in the Spectator ; and Pope, in his 

 fourth Moral Epistle, lashed its petty, 

 cramped and unnatural character, and 

 displayed a better taste in the garden of 

 his little villa, at Twickenham ; crowds 

 followed him, and practice went before 

 theory. (See Horace Walpole's History 

 of Modern Taste in Gardening.) This 

 style, however, was also carried to 

 excess. All appearance of regularity 



tastic, predominate in a garden, ac- 

 cording to the means which can be 

 commanded. This is not so easy as 

 might appear at first, and it requires as 

 much skill to discover the disposition 

 which should be made of certain 

 grounds, as to carry it into effect ; but 

 if such skill were not required, garden- 

 ing would not be an art. Another prin- 

 ciple, which gardening has in common 

 with all the fine arts, is, that it is by no 

 means its highest aim to imitate reality, 

 because reality will always be better 

 than imitation. A gardener ought to 



•was rejected as hurtful to the beauty of j study nature, to learn from her the 

 nature, and it was forgotten, that if in a I principles and elements of beauty, as 

 garden we want nothing but nature, we 1 the painter is obliged to do; but he 

 had better leave gardening altogether. ! must not stop there. As another gene- 

 This extreme prevailed, particularly ral remark, we would observe, that the 

 after the Oriental and Chinese style (see true style of gardening lies between the 

 Chambers' Dissertations on Oriental two extremes. It is by no means a re- 

 Gardening-) had become known. What 1 proach to a garden that it shows the 

 in nature is dispersed over thousands of ; traces of art, any more than it is to a 

 miles, was huddled together on a small drama. Both, indeed, should follow 

 spot of a few acres square — urns, tombs; ' nature ; but in respect to the fine arts, 



Chinese, Turkish and New Zealand 

 temples; bridges, which could not be 

 passed without risk ; damp grottoes ; 

 moist walks ; noisome pools, which 

 were meant to represent lakes; houses, 

 huts, castles, convents, hermitages, 

 ruins, decaying trees, heaps of stones ; 

 — a pattern card of every thing strange, 

 from all nations under heaven, was ex- 

 hibited in such a garden. Stables took 

 the shape of palaces, kennels of Gothic 

 temples, &c. ; and this was called 

 nature ! The folly of this was soon felt, 

 and a chaster style took its place. At 

 this point we have now arrived. The 

 art of gardening, like every other art, 

 is manifold ; and one of its first princi- 

 ples, as in architecture, is to calculate 

 well the means and the objects. Im- 



there is a great difference between a 

 free following of nature and a servile 

 copy of particular realities. Tieck, in 

 his Phantasien, does not entirely reject 

 the French system ; at least, he defends 

 the architectural principle as one of 

 the principles of the art of gardening. 

 There are many works of great merit 

 on gardening, of which we only men- 

 tion Descriptions des nouveaux Jardins 

 de la France, &c., by La Borde (Paris, 

 1S08 to J814), the most complete for 

 descriptions; Loudon's Encyclopedia 

 of Gardening, 5th edit., (London, 1827;) 

 Handbuch der schonen Gartenkunst, by 

 Dietrich (Giessen, 1815); Hirschfeld's 

 Theorie der Gartenkunst (Leipsic, 1779), 

 5 vols., 4to., with many engravings, a 

 work of very great merit, and still of 



mense cathedrals and small apartments, considerable use; Le ban Jardinier, 

 long epics and little songs, all may be ; Almanack pour P Annie 1830, edited by 

 equ°ally beautiful and perfect, but can ' A. Poiteau (Paris), 1022 pages. (See 

 only be made so by a proper regard to the article Horticulture.^ — Encyclo- 

 the'character ofeach. Thustheclimate, padia Americana. 



the extent of the grounds, the soil, &c., j GARDENER. The day is gone when 

 must determine the character of a gar- ' the spade and the blue apron were the 

 den. Aiken justly observes, that no- ; only appropriate devices for the gar- 

 thing deviates more from nature, than dener ; he must now not only have a 

 the imitation of her grand works in thorough practical knowledge of his 

 miniature. All deception ceases at the art, but he must also have an intimate 

 first view, and the would-be magnificent acquaintance with its sciences. No 

 garden appears like a mere baby house. I man can have stored in his mind too 

 Let the character of the agreeable, the much knowledge, but there are always 

 sublime, the awful, the sportive, the ^ some branches of information of more 

 rural, the neat, the romantic, the fan- I value than others ; of these to the gar- 



