LANDSOAPE-GAEDENINO. 280 



First, the Landscape-painter may copy with the 

 most scrupulous exactitude some piece of scenery ac- 

 tually existing ; and such is the wonderful beauty and 

 diversity of nature, that if his selection has been 

 felicitous, the result may be among- the most truthful 

 and successful of his eftorts. The Landscape-gardener 

 can seldom copy. He may indeed fall into that same- 

 ness of style Avhich constitutes mannerism, but he can 

 never servilely copy ; lor even on tlie most level sur- 

 faces his materials are not often the same, and the 

 relative situations of his permanent objects are al- 

 most always different. He is bound to create views, if 

 we may here use a word of so much weight of mean- 

 ing ; in short, his business is what is technically called 

 comj^osition. This circumstance makes his work paral- 

 lel to what, we believe, is the highest line of landscape- 

 ])ainting, viz: the formation of pictures by the combi- 

 nation of the finest objects which the artist has copied 

 into his sketcli-book, or can recall by his memory, or 

 can embody by his imagination. But here the painter 

 has some important advantages. His canvas is at first 

 a tahula rasa, a wholly unoccupied field, and his ob- 

 jects are fully at his command. He can put down 

 rocks here, and water there, and buildings and trees 

 wherever the rules of i:)er3pective or the management 

 of his distances render them admissible. The Land- 

 scape-gardener has most of his objects laid dowii to 

 him. He must accept of the locality with its natural 

 features, and the contour of the ground, which often 

 prescribes a particular treatment ; and he must make 

 it his business to conceal deformities, to elicit existing 

 but unapparent beauties, and to adorn whatever is 



susceptible of improvement. It is true that in these 

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