248 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



life, is passed by with neglect : but the one is the fancy of the 

 florist, and fades, and dies, and disappears for ever ; the other 

 is propagated from generation to generation, eternal in its use. 



To raise a chestnut on the mountain, or a palm in the plain, 

 which may afford shade, shelter, and fruit for generations yet 

 unborn, and which, if they have once fixed their roots, require 

 no culture, is better than to raise annual flowers in a garden, 

 which must be watered daily, and in which a cold wind may 

 chill or too ardent a sunshine may dry. — Extracts from his Note- 

 Books. 



— -A/W' — 



WASHINGTON HPHE taste of the English in the cultivation of land, and in 

 IRVING 1 what is called landscape-gardening, is unrivalled. They 



(17 3-1 59)- 'Sxd.vQ studied nature intently, and discover an exquisite sense of 



her beautiful forms and harmonious combinations. 



Those charms, which in other countries she lavishes in wild 

 solitudes, are here assembled round the haunts of domestic life. 

 They seem to have caught her coy and furtive graces, and spread 

 them, like witchery, about their rural abodes. 

 ^ Nothing can be more imposing than the magnificence of 

 /" English park scenery. Vast lawns that extend like sheets of 

 vivid green, with here and there clumps of gigantic trees, heaping 

 up rich piles of foliage ; the solemn pomp of groves and woodland 

 glades, with the deer trooping in silent herds across them ; the 

 hare, bounding away to the covert; or the pheasant, suddenly 

 bursting upon the wing : the brook, taught to wind in natural 

 meanderings, or expand into a glassy lake : the sequestered pool, 

 reflecting the quivering trees, with the yellow leaf sleeping on its 

 bosom, and the trout roaming fearlessly about its limpid waters, 

 while some rustic temple or sylvan statue, grown green and dark 

 with age, gives an air of classic sanctity to the seclusion. 



These are but a few of the features of park scenery ; but what 

 most delights me is the creative talent with which the English 



