WILLIAM MASON 183 



look for in the wild scenes of Nature. We expect to see its lawns 

 and their appendages contrasted with each other, in shape, size 

 and disposition, from which a variety of artificial scenes will 

 arise. We expect, that when trees are left standing as individuals, 

 they should be the most beautiful of their kind, elegant and well 

 balanced. ... If there be a natural river or a real ruin in the 

 scene, it may be a happy circumstance : let the best use be made 

 of it ; but I should be cautious in advising the creation of either. 

 At least I have rarely seen either ruins or rivers well manufac- 

 tured. Mr Brown, I think, has failed more in river making than 

 in any of his attempts. An artificial lake has sometimes a good 

 efi"ect ; but neither propriety nor beauty can arise from it, unless 

 the heads and extremities of it are perfectly well managed and 

 concealed ; and after all the success is hazardous. . . . 



As the garden, or pleasure ground, as it is commonly called, 

 approaches nearer to the house than the park, it takes of course a 

 higher polish. Here the lawns are shorn instead of being grazed ; 

 the roughness of the road is changed into an elegant, gravel walk ; 

 and knots of flowers and flowering shrubs are introduced, yet 

 blended with clumps of forest trees, which connect it with the 

 park. Single trees also take their station here with great pro- 

 priety. Here too, if the situation suits it, the elegant temple may 

 find a place. But it is an expensive, a hazardous and often a 

 useless decoration. ... In the most polished landscape, unless 

 nature and simplicity lead the way, the whole will be deformed. — 

 ^ Refnarks on Forest Scenery^ edited by Sir T. Dick Lauder ^ 

 1834 {who has also edited Humphry Reptoiis complete works). 



Mason was Author of two tragedies and of the poem ' The English Garden,^ WILLIAM 

 1772. MASON 



Dallaway says these Notes and Commentaries to "The Plnglish Garden" \^T^S''^19n 

 are by W. Burgh. Loudon quotes them as by Mason. — See ' Encyclopedia ^/txt'tt t TAM 

 Gardening: BURGH, 



^HE first book (of 'The English Garden') contains the LL.D. 



ji 



general principles of the art, which are shown to be no 

 other than those which constitute beauty in the sister art of 



