Book IV. 



BEAUTIES OF LANDSCAPE-GARDENING. 



1001 



what will be the expression of the view ? We think it would express very little to general observers ; but 

 there being nothing glaringly offensive in the arrangement, it would be expressive of some beauty to him 

 who had bestowed some attention to the subject of landscapes ; for though it exhibits but little harmony 

 of forms and colors, light or shade, it still possesses enough of these ingredients to render it worth looking 

 at as a picturesque view. 



7189. The general or natural expression of melancholy and grandeur remains to be accounted for. 

 For this purpose, let the building be the ruins of an ancient* castle, whose lofty quadrangular form may be 

 readily imagined from the walls we mentioned, as composing a part of the scenery. The character of 

 grandeur, then, is not in this instance communicated to the picture, by the picturesque effect of the walls, 

 which have no variety of form, light, or shade, in themselves, but by the mental associations to which they 

 give rise in a cultivated mind. 



7190. As another example of picturesque, and poetic, or sentimental expression, imagine the cattle and 

 sheep removed, the surface of the ground covered by smoothly mown turf, and the luxuriant branches 

 of some of the foreground trees nearly reclining on the ground. The first expression would be that of 

 beautiful, or elegant picturesque ; the next that of stillness, and consecration to man, — stillness, as being 

 without animals or moving objects ; and consecration to man, from the mown surface, greatly heightened 

 by the circumstance of the branches of trees reclining on the ground, which never can happen where 

 sheep or cattle are admitted, and which forms the leading visible distinction between a group of trees in 

 a park, and a group on a mown lawn. It is not from the smoothness of the turf, or any particular mix- 

 ture of light and shade in the reclining branches, that this expression is produced, but from reflecting on 

 the cause of this appearance. 



7191. As a third example, imagine, instead of the smooth turf, uncouth rough ground, covered in some 

 places with furze, briars, brambles, and tangled thickets; the water fringed with rushes, and partially 

 concealed by aquatic shrubs ; and wild horses and deer forming the animated part of the scene. The ex- 

 pression would be eminently picturesque ; but there would also be an expression of wildness, not result- 

 ing from the picturesque qualities as such, but from mental reflection on the difference between this 

 scene and one of cultivation. 



7192. Asa fourth example, imagine the view deprived of the lake and the building, and consisting only 

 of the wood and ground, with the heads of a straggling row of willow-trees appearing in the middle dis- 

 tance, and the sound of a distant waterfall heard through the trees. Here, to picturesque beauty we have 

 an idea of water — of an immense body of it in the lake or river which supplies the waterfall — and of the 

 rocks, which oppose their powerful obstruction to a body of water. The reader will here remark, how 

 much of the sublime beauty of this scene depends on sound, which can never be included under pictur- 

 esque beauty. The leading expression is that of sublimity, accompanied by various associations of dignity 

 produced by the rocks, and of grandeur suggested by the stream, after the waters have renewed their 

 tranquil course, and rolling, as we may imagine, majestically along under the shade of the line of willow- 

 trees. 



7193. Other examples, of a more striking nature, might be adduced; but these in- 

 stances we consider as better adapted to show the difference between a composition 

 merely picturesque, and one expressive of general or natural beauty, and to prove our 

 position, that both poetry and painting enter into the principles of imitative landscape- 

 gardening. They will also show, how very little the production of natural beauty is 

 within the power of the landscape-gardener. He may display it to more advantage. 

 In the first example of expression, for instance, the building, or such parts of it as more 

 obviously show its real character, might be displayed by the removal of some over-ob- 

 truding branches ; and in the second, a garden-seat, and some garden-trees, as the lime, 

 cedar, &c. might add to the idea of consecration to man. In the third, a corn-field or a 

 barn in the distance, would aid the effect by contrast ; and in the last, a bridge would 

 determine the situation and reality of the river. But to attempt effecting these expres- 

 sions by building a ruin, placing a garden-seat in a paddock, or erecting a bridge where 

 there was no water, would, however common in the infancy of the art, be now justly 

 considered ridiculous. Much more, it is true, might be done in improving the pictur- 

 esque beauty of each of these scenes, provided the trees were already grown to ma- 

 turity, and too numerous rather than too few ; but if the trees are yet to plant, it is 

 evident that only the ground-plans of the masses and groups of trees, and of the breadth 

 of the lawn, could be formed by the artist. 



7194. A very common error, since the introduction of the modern style, has been to sup- 

 pose that picturesque beauty is the only beauty to be aimed at in laying out grounds ; 

 but so far from this being the case, it will often happen that the alterations required for 





