146 



luents in these Gardens, were made at Mr. Wise's recommen- 

 dation. Tlie old Gardens were finished. The gravel pits 

 turned into a shrubbery, through which were winding walks, so 

 much admifed by Addison, that he compares Mr. Wise, to an 

 Epic Poet, and this improvement to an episode in the general 

 effect of the Garden. During this reign the parterre before the 

 Great Terrace at Windsor, was covered with turf. The Box 

 Work at Hampton Court was removed, and the Gardens fresh 

 laid out. London and Wise, were the Garden designers of this 

 age. Wise was occupied three years in completing the grounds 

 of Blenheim. Exton Hall, Edger, Wanstead, and in short most 

 of the seats, in the old style, were laid out by these designers. 

 Switzer enumerates many of them, concluding with Castle 

 Howard, the seat of Earl Carlisle, *• 'Tis there, he exclaims, that 

 Nature is truly imitated, if not excelled, and from which the 

 ingenious may draw the best of their schemes, in natural and rural 

 Gardening. 'Tis there she is taught even to excel herself in the 

 Natura linear, and much more natural and promiscuous dispo- 

 sition of all her beauties."* In making nature more natural 

 our author could go no higher 1 The alteration and improve- 

 ment of design in Gardening, was now apparently a national 

 object, and the shades of Charles, William and Mary, might 

 have viewed with regret, if permitted, the devastations which 

 were spreading among all the formalities, and ton sile labours of 

 iheir days. The rise and progress of Landscape Gardening, 

 however, belongs to the next Chapter. 



* Icnographia Rurtica, vi i. pp. 83, et infra. 



