STTLES OF LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



47 



setting up inscriptions to different deities in different spots, and quota- 

 tions from the works of various authors which were supposed to be in 

 accordance with the scenes in which they were placed.* In England 

 these excesses soon wore themselves outf and a more rational landscape 

 style took its place in the work of Repton,J as it did in Germany in 

 the work of Sckell and Puckler-Muskau.§ (See Plate 21.) In 

 Germany, however, the Romantic landscape style came perhaps to its 

 worst and most heavy-handed extreme. Some designs, as for instance, 

 Wilhelmshohe, near Cassel, are indisputably successful in producing 

 an emotional effect, but whether this effect will be interest and excite- 

 ment or sheer horror will depend on the sensitiveness of the observer. 



When Henry VIII dispossessed the monks from their holdings in The English 

 England, the new owners of the lands built houses and in many cases ^^''"'^^ %^^ 

 laid out gardens in accordance with the importance and state which 

 they meant to keep up. There was a sudden and considerable increase 

 in interest in the arrangement of landed estates. For a time at least 

 there was little seeking outside of England for a new style of garden 

 building ; the work was done in accordance with the habits and taste 

 of the owners, and with the materials of plant and stone that were 

 found at hand. The soil of England is fertile, the climate moist and 

 temperate, the sun more frequently hidden behind clouds or veiled in 

 haze than shining with a brilliancy to make outdoor life unpleasant 



* The inscriptions so used in M. de Girardin's estate, which he designed him- 

 self may be found in the Promenade ou Itiniraire des Jardins d' Ermenonville, with 

 illustrations by Alengot, 1788. See also the illustrations of Laborde's estate, Mere- 

 ville, in his Descriptions des Nouveaux Jardins de France, 1808 — , plates 44-57. 



t Cf. the work of Whately, Observations on Modern Gardening, first published 1770. 

 (See References.) 



J " I do not profess to follow either Le Notre or Brown, but selecting beauties 

 from the style of each, to adopt so much of the grandeur of the former as may accord 

 with a palace, and so much of the grace of the latter as may call forth the charms of 

 natural landscape. Each has its proper situation ; and good taste will make fashion 

 subservient to good sense." 



Repton, Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, 1805, p. 125. In Chapter 

 X, Ancient and Modern Gardening. (See References.) 



§ Repton, Sckell, and Piickler-Muskau are important not only as designers but 

 because of the considerable writings in which they left a record of their opinions. 



