THE '' LANDSCArE-GARDENP 125 



explained points, many contratlictions that are un- 

 solved, to which I have already alluded. 



Loudon's Introduction to Repton's " Landscape 

 Gardening- " gives perhaps the most intelligible 

 account of the whole matter. The art of laying out 

 grounds has been displayed in two very distinct 

 styles: the first of w^hich is called the "Ancient 

 Roman. Geometric, Regular, or Architectural Style; 

 and the second the Modern, English* Irregular, 

 Natural, or Landscape Style." 



We have, he says, the Italian, the French, and 

 the Dutch Schools of the Geometric Style. The 

 Modern, or Landscape Style, when it first displayed 

 itself in luiglish country residences, was distinctly 

 marked by the absence of everything that had the 

 appearance of a terrace, or of architectural forms, or 

 lines, immediately about the house. The house, in 

 short, rose abruptly from the lawn, and the general 

 surface of the ground was characterised by smooth- 

 ness and bareness. This constituted the first School 

 of the Landscape Style, introduced by Kent and 

 Brown. 



This manner was followed b}- the romantic or 

 Picturesque Style, which inaugurates a School which 

 aimed at producing architectural tricks and devices, 

 allied with scenery of picturesque character and 

 sham rusticity. The conglomeration at Stowe, albeit 

 that it is attributed to Kent, shows what man can do 

 in the way of heroically wrong garden-craft. 



♦ This is a little unpatriotic of Loudon to imply that the English 

 had no garden-style till the i8th century, but one can stand a great 

 deal from Loudon. 



