100 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



" ' follow the lines designed by nature, which 

 " ' are always easy and undulating, or bold, 

 " ' prominent, and elevated, but never stiff 

 " * and formal.' 



" It is to be hoped that there is discern- 

 " ment enough in our present race of artists 

 " to see the propriety of adopting or restoring 

 " those fine figures, the oval and the circle, 

 " as certainly the best for temporary and 

 " large detached masses of wood. And now 

 " that all controversy between hostile systems 

 " is at an end, I trust that the English garden, 

 " distinguished by simplicity and freedom, 

 " will henceforth be under no law but that of 

 " Nature, improved and embellished by such 

 " art only as owns her supremacy, and knows 

 " to borrow, without being herself seen, every 

 " pleasing form which owes its origin to that 

 " unfailing source of variety and beauty." * 



It appears singular that the advocates on 

 each side of the question before us, should 

 appeal to nature as the foundation of their 

 diametrically opposite systems. I say advo- 

 cates, as there are authorities for the view of 

 the subject which I have taken, at least as high 

 in matters of taste as either of those with 



* Steuart's Planter's Guide, note 2. p. 422. 



