6 



As one of the ends of all the fine arts consists m 

 raising certain pleasing sentiments in the human mind, 

 so it seems to be an essential requisite of these senti- 

 ments, that they should not only have each of them 

 something precise and characteristical, but that they 

 should have likewise some common alliance among 

 themselves. The first bar of a piece of music, the 

 first row of pillars in a house, or tlie first nwvemcnt 

 in a dance, all determine the particular cadence, ele- 

 vation, or measure of the different wholes of which 

 each makes a part. 



In this respect, the art of laying out gardens has 

 not as yet arrived at the same degree of taste to 

 which some of the other arts have. Many gardens 

 contain a disposition of grounds, and an assemblage 

 of objects, which create many pleasing sentiments in 

 the mind ; but it has scarce been the aim of any gar- 

 dener to raise a train of precise characteristical senti- 

 ments in the parts, and of allying and similar ones in 

 the whole. 



This deficiency in the art of gardening, as w€ 

 practise it, is the more inexcusable, as nature herself 

 seems to have stamped certain distinct seutiuients, 

 upon the view of different dispositions of grounds. 



There seem in nature to be four different dispo- 

 sitions of grounds, distinct from each other, and 

 which create distinct and separate sentiments. 



The first situation is that of a highland coun- 

 try, consisting of great and steep mountains, rocks, 

 lakes, impetuous rivers, &c. Such a place is 

 INVERARY. The sentiment which a situation like 

 this creates in the breast of a beholder is obviously, 

 and everyone feels it, that of grandeur. 



The next, is what one may call a romantic dis- 

 position of grounds, consisting of sunk vallies, woods 

 hanging over them, smooth rivers, the banks steep 

 but accessible, and the rocks appearing high, not so 

 much from their own height, as from the trees which 

 crown, and the wild birds that are continually hover- 

 ing over them. Such a situation is generally desti- 



