HISTORICAL AND COM PARA TIVE. 79 



of the mawkish sentimentaHty of the modern '* land- 

 scape-gardener," proud of his discoveries, busthng to 

 show Iiow condescending he can be towards Nature, 

 how susceptible to a pastoral melancholy. There 

 is nothing here of the maundering of Shenstone 

 over his ideal landscape-garden that reads as though 

 it would be a superior sort of pedants' Cremorne, 

 where " the lover's walk may have assignation seats, 

 with proper mottoes, urns to faithful lovers, trophies, 

 o-arlands, etc.. by means of Art " ; and where due 

 consideration is to be given to " certain complexions 

 of soul that will prefer an orange tree or a m)Ttle to 

 an oak or cedar." The older men thought first of 

 the effects that they wished to attain, and proceeded 

 to realise them without more ado. They had no 

 " codes of taste " to appeal to, and no literary law- 

 givers to stand in dread of. They applied Nature's 

 raw materials as their art required. And yet, com- 

 pared with the methods of the heavy-handed realist 

 of later times such unscrupulousness had a merit of 

 its own. To suit their purposes the old gardeners 

 may have defied Nature's ways and wont ; but, even 

 so, they act as fine gentlemen should : they never 

 pet and patronise her : they have no blunt and 

 blundering: methods such as mark the Nature-maulers 

 of the Brown or Batty- Langley school : if they cut, 

 they do not mince, nor hack, nor tear, they cut clean. 

 In one's better moments one can almost sympathise 

 with the " landscape-gardener's " feelings as he 

 reads, if he ever does read, Evelyn's classic book 

 •' Sylva ; or, a Discourse of Forest-trees," how they 



