394 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



Kent was practically the originator of modern park scenery, 

 the landscape-painter's garden ; he, in the words of Walpole, being 

 ' the first to leap the fence and show that the whole of Nature 1 

 is a garden ' ; Bridgman by the invention of the 'Ha Ha ' or 

 sunk fence having made it possible to unite the garden with 

 the park and the surrounding country, without any visible break. 



Kent began life as a coach-painter, and by a singular revolution 

 of the wheels of fortune found himself, under the patronage 

 of the Earl of Burlington, an architect and landscape-painter. 

 However monotonous Kent's ' Nature ' may seem to us now, 

 and nothing is proof against the power of fashion, there is no 

 doubt that he dictated the style of gardening to the whole of 

 Europe for a very long period.^ 



The great principles on which Kent worked, writes Walpole 

 again, were ' perspective, light and shade. Groups of trees broke 

 too uniform, or too extensive a lawn — evergreens and woods were 

 opposed to the glare of the champaign. . . . Where objects were 

 wanting he introduced temples, etc., but he especially excelled 

 in the management of water. The gentle stream was taught to 

 serpentine seemingly at its pleasure.' 



He followed Nature even in her faults. In Kensington 

 Gardens he planted dead trees (a genuine instance of 'laying 

 out ') but was soon laughed out of this excess. Here is a 

 view of one of his greatest reputed triumphs — Esher, ' where 

 Kent and Nature vied for Pelham's Love.' 



To us now the design, with the house almost below the 

 level of the ground, seems simple to baldness — but we must look 

 at it with the eyes of 1730, accustomed to the artificialities of 

 the f>ench manner, and there is little doubt that the extreme 

 reaction had something of genius in it. George Mason wrote in 

 panegyric of Kent : ' All that has since been done by the most 

 deservedly admired designers, by Southcote (at Wooburn Farm), 

 Hamilton (at Pain's Hill), Lyttelton (at Hagley), Pitt (at Hayes) 

 Shenstone (at the Leasowes), and Morris for themselves ; and by 

 Wright ( Kent's successor) for others ; all that has been written on 



^ See ante p. 140. 



