CHAPTER VIII 



GARDEN DESIGN AS A LIBERAL OR FINE ART : THE ' COMPOSI- 

 TION ' OF NATURE OR LANDSCAPE — REACTION OF THE 

 ' PICTURESQUE ' WRITERS — COSMOPOLITANISM AND ECLEC- 

 TICISM IN THE GARDEN. 



THOMAS London in the ' Encyclopaedia oj Gardening' says of him : — ' His " Observa- 



WHATELY tions on Modern Gardening,'' published in 1770, is the grand fundamental and 

 {d. 1772). standard work on English gardening. It is entirely analytical ; treating first 



of the rnaterials, then of the scenes, and lastly, of the subjects of gardening. Its 

 style has been pronounced by the learned Eason, inimitable; and the descriptions 

 with 2ohich his investigations are accompanied have been largely copied and 

 amply praised by Alison in his work on " Taste'' The book was soon 

 translated into the continental languages, and is judiciously praised in the 

 Mercure de France, Journal Encyclopedique aw^ Wieland's Journal. G. Mason 

 alone dissents frovi the general opinion, enlarging on the very few faults or 

 peculiarities which are to be found in the book' Whately was the brother of 

 the then proprietor of Nonsuch Park, near Epsom in Surrey, which place he 

 mainly assisted in ' laying out. ' He was for a short time secretary to the Earl 

 of Suffolk ; then M. P. and secretary to the Treasury ; besides this work, he 

 published two anonymous English pamphlets, and died in \T12. After his 

 death his Remarks on Shakespeare we7'e published in 1785 by his brother, the 

 Rro. DrJ. Whately, and a secotid edition in 1808 by his nephew Dr R. Whately, 

 Archbishop of Dublin, yZt^x. 



GARDENING, in the perfection to which it has been lately 

 brought in England, is entitled to a place of considerable 

 rank among the liberal arts. It is as superior to landskip-painting 

 as a reality to a representation : it is an exertion of fancy, a 

 subject for taste ; and being released now from the restraints of 

 regularity and enlarged beyond the purposes of domestic con- 

 venience, the most beautiful, the most simple, the most noble 

 scenes of nature are all within its province : for it is no longer 

 confined to the spots from which it borrows its name, but 

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