26 LANDSCAPE C, MIDENING. 



of its own, expressive of national character or localit}' 

 The most marked of these imitators were the Dutch, 

 whose style of ornamental gardening seems sufficiently 

 unique to be worthy of being considered a separate school. 

 And how shall we characterize the Dutch school, which 

 even to this day, in the Low Countries, has scarcely given 

 way to the continental admiration for the "jai'din Anglais;" 

 this double distilled compound of labored symmetry, regu- 

 larity, and stiffness, wdiich seems to convey to the quiet own- 

 ers so much pleasure, and to the tasteful traveller and critic 

 so much despair ! A stagnant and muddy canal, with a bridge 

 thrown over it, and often connected with a circular fish- 

 pond ; a grass slope and a mound of green turf, on which 

 is a pleasure or banqueting house with gilt ornaments ; num- 

 berless clipped trees, and every variety of trellis-w^ork lively 

 with green paint ; in the foreground beds of gay bulbs and 

 florists' flowers, interspersed with huge orange trees in tubs, 

 and in the distance smooth green meadows — such are the 

 unvarying features of the Hollander's garden or gi'ounds.* 

 The true Dutchman looks upon his garden as a quiet place 

 to smoke and be " content" in ; if he lazily saunters through, 

 it is rather to enjoy the gay pencilUngs of some new bed of 

 tulips than to enjoy the elegance and harmony of its design, 

 the variety of scenery, or the freshness and beauty of the 

 foliage. At the same time, he is neither exclusive nor secret 

 with the stores of enjoyment which he has within its bounds ; 

 and very many of the private villas near Rotterdam, and in 

 other parts of Holland, have mottoes like those inscribed 



* In the neighborhood of Antwerp, not a long time since, was the villa 

 of M. Smetz, where, among many things that were pretty, was the odd con- 

 ceit of a lawn on which were a shepherd, his flock of sheep, and his dog 

 cut m stone, and always looking " pastoral and countr)--like." 



