LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 313 



tions we suggest infringe upon the harmony of the view, the 

 objects have only to be properly placed. Xow Chatsworth, 

 viewed from an elevation as high as a balloon would carry us, 

 would present a whole ; we could see at once the whole estate, 

 but there would be no harmony. Yet what advantages did 

 that comprise'? Wood, rock, water, mountain scenery, mate- 

 rials for every feature the eye could covet, as it were, on the 

 spot ; yet there is not one point from which a view like the 

 quiet beauty of Richmond Hill could be found. Everything, 

 however, in landscape gardening should be in harmony, and it 

 can always be accomplished if there were all the features that 

 make a scene beautiful. We do not mean that there can be 

 a pagoda here, and a mosque there, or that we are to drag- 

 features from all the quarters of the globe ; that is not natural, 

 and therefore cannot be beautiful. But we mean that all the best 

 features in natural scenery can be brought together without 

 destroying the harmony. Take a turn the whole length of the 

 Wye — we do not want to have one little island and its im- 

 mediate dependencies for scenes — and how many times should 

 we stop to admire the mountains and ruins on its banks and 

 within sight 1 Eamble among the mountains in Scotland and 

 Wales, and how many times should we stop to admire scenes 

 grand and beautiful, because harmonious 1 What we find 

 beautiful in nature we can imitate in style, if not in magnitude. 

 Hence we say the landscape gardener can make a scene beau- 

 tiful^ because he can bring together in harmony subjects which 

 may not be often found together. But without " stepping 

 from the sublime to the ridiculous," let us glance at what we 

 may call formal gardening. We have seen this very beautiful ; 

 every path, bed, clump, tree, shrub, and plant uniform, straight, 

 circular, angular, and geometrically accurate. The Italian 

 Gardens at Chatsworth are beautiful. The fountains are 

 beautifid. ; we have no objection to these formal gardens when 

 well kept, but it is beauty of a dilFent kind to natural beauty. 

 When all is architectural in the neighbourhood, and natural 

 scenery is altogether shut out, we can see beauty in geometri- 

 cal gardens. The American Garden at Cremorne, laid out as 

 it was by Milner, and planted with the most choice rhododen- 

 drons and azalias, closed in with canvas, the scene was com- 

 plete, and unquestionably beautiful. We seemed in another 

 world, or at least in another country. But it is very rare that 

 formal gardening is sufiiciently excluded from natural scenery 



