3i6 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



the irregular curves of Nature and her dispositions of rock, wood 

 and water, rather than straight Hnes and geometrical curves ; but 

 in the hands of mannerists these irregular windings and serpentis- 

 ings often become as arbitrary, unnatural and monotonous as the 

 more intentional regularity of the architect. ^ 



Broadly it may be said that the ' landscape-garden ' in its purity 

 resembled a park, and that the landscape-gardener was a creator of 

 park scenery ; but it is clear that the division into two styles is only 

 for the purposes of rough classification, and that between the two 

 are innumerable gradations and shades. Gardens may be and have 

 been made of the greatest beauty, which would resist all attempts 

 to force them into any aesthetic categories ; while no more 

 definite plan of design, ' laying out ' or ' composition ' may have 

 been followed than dictated by the instinct of beauty, taste and 

 the love of Nature and Art. 



In an historical account of gardens the precedents are in favour 

 of beginning with the Gardenjpf Eden, which undoubtedly claims 

 priority in time ; but until we know whether Major Seton Karr, 



^ It may be interesting to note a few of the many names that have from time 

 to time been put forward as claimants to the honour of initiating, prophecying 

 or suggesting the principle of the Modern, Natural or Landscape Garden : — 



1. Homer's Grotto of Calypso ; CElian's Vale of Tempe (Bottiger). 



2. Nero in Tacitus (Loudon). 



3. Petrarch's ' Vaucluse.' 



4. Tasso's Garden of Armida (Eustace). 



5. Christopher Wren (father of the Architect), inventor of the serpentine 



river. 



6. 'Bacon the prophet, Milton the Herald' (W. Mason). 



7. Milton's Paradise (Dr J. Warton and Horace Walpole). 



8. Sir Plenry Wotton (G. W. Johnson). 



9. Huet, Bishop of Avranches. 



10. Dufresny (Gabriel Thouin). 



11. Hogarth's * Line of Beauty.* 



12. William Kent. 



13. Pope in the Guardiati, and at Twickenham. . 



14. Addison in the Spectator. 



15. The Enghsh (Gray). 



16. The Chinese (Geo. Mason and W. Chambers). 



