THOMAS WHATELY 197 



flat the serpentine river, the open planting, the lake and island, 

 the moulding the flat into the gentle unevennesses of Kent, have 

 a rural and cheerful aspect; of this last particularly there is a 

 fine instance in Kent's plantation at the back of the house at 

 Chiswick, compared with the phlegmatic plantation of Bridgeman 

 on the same side of the garden. But these contrivances though 

 proper for a small plain, are too few and simple for a great one. . . . 

 We must frankly call in the assistance of art to make the chief 

 parts of the garden. For this reason bosquets, statues, vases, 

 trees cut into great arches, jets-d'eau, cascades forced up and 

 made to tumble down an hundred steps, regular basins, peristiles, 

 temples, long vistas, the star plantation, etc., are in taste here. 

 All the magnificence of Versailles, without its conceits or its too 

 often repeated symmetry, should be admitted. To supply the 

 defects of natural prospect the walks should terminate in artificial 

 vistas ; and in the light, perhaps even painted cascades and 

 buildings, as practised by some of our EngHsh gardeners, if 

 pardonable anywhere, are pardonable here. To get too, as far as 

 can be, the advantage of natural prospects, the artificial mounts 

 of the flat Dutch gardens should here be introduced. ... As 

 there is but little pleasure to the imagination arising from this 

 situation itself, so it should be contrived to give as much pleasure 

 to the senses as possible ; for this reason, the flowers should be 

 sown in beds and parterres, to be the more obviously seen, and 

 to throw out their sweets stronger into the air; fruits of the 

 finest kinds should be spread through the compartments; the 

 flowering shrubs should be planted in clumps, and assorted in 

 their colours and flowers with all the nicety of a well made-up 

 flower-pot ; to strike with the stronger surprize, the trees should 

 be all exotics, and of the rarest kinds ; and to create a greater 

 variety, though the Chinese form from its fantastical appearance 

 and the Corinthian order from its magnificence, be, in general, 

 the prospect for such an adorned garden, yet buildings of all 

 species under the sun that have dignity in them should here find 

 place. In short, every agreeable object that creates surprize 

 and that exhibits a view of magnificent art should enter into the 



