GEORGE MASON 203 



appear; for stiff forms can only produce the effect of a mathe- 

 matical plan, cut paper or an ornament for a dessert, and can never 

 produce the picturesque effect of a landscape. . . . 



Symmetry certainly owed its origin to vanity and indolence ; to 

 vanity, in attempting to force the situation to accord with the 

 building, instead of making the building suit the situation ; to 

 idleness, because it was more easy to work upon paper, which will 

 allow of any form, than to examine and combine the real objects, 

 which can only take the forms that suit them. — The Composition 

 of Landscape. 



—'A/\/Vj~— 



ly yjILTON, as well as Sidney, lived at a time when rural graces GEORGE 

 ^^^ were but little understood ; yet kis model of Eden remains (1735.1806). 

 unimpeachable. Claremont could not be freed from the fetters 

 of regularity, when celebrated by Garth ; nevertheless regularity 

 is concealed without violating truth in the description. 



' 'Tis he can paint in verse those rising hills, 

 Those gentle vallies, and their silver rills ; 

 Close groves and opening glades with verdure spread ; 

 Flowers sighing sweets, and shrubs that balsam bleed.' 



Garth's Claremont. 



The elegance and propriety of rural designs seems greatly to 

 depend on a nice distinction between contrast and incongruity. . . . 

 At Paine's Hill the banks of the lake are admirably contrasted 

 by the wild rusticity on the other side of the arch : but I could 

 wish the separation more perfect. The species of design should 

 generally conform to the nature of the place, but even this rule 

 may sometimes be neglected without any visible incongruity. . . . 



There is an art in the management of grounds little under- 

 stood, and possibly the most difficult to be accomphshed ; 'tis 

 analogous to what is called keeping under in painting : by some 

 parts being seemingly neglected, the succeeding are more strik- 

 ingly beautiful. The effect of this management is very apparent 

 at the Leasowes. . . . 



From a general view of our present gardens in populous 



