34 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



Walpole thinks, by Pope's criticisms, banished verdant 

 sculpture from his plans, and introduced bits of forest 

 scenery in the gardens at Richmond. And Loudon and 

 Wise, the two noted nurserymen of the day, laid out Kensing- 

 ton gardens anew in a manner so much more natural as to 

 ehcit the warm commendations of Addison in the Specta- 

 tor. It is not too much to say that Kent was the leader of 

 this class. Originally a painter, and the friend of Lord 

 Burlington, he next devoted himself to the subject, and 

 was, undoubtedly, the first professional landscape gardener 

 in the modern style. Previous artists had confined their 

 efforts within the rigid walls of the garden, but Kent, who 

 saw in all nature a garden-landscape, demolished the walls, 

 introduced the ha-ha, and by blending the park and the 

 warden, substituted for the primness of the old inclosure, 

 the freedom of ihe pleasure-ground. His taste seems to 

 have been partly formed by Pope, and the Twickenham 

 garden was the prototype of those of Carlton House, Kent's 

 chef d'aeuvre. And, notwithstanding his faults, " his tem- 

 ples, obelisks, and gazabos of every description in the park, 

 all stuck about in their respective high places," notwith- 

 standing that his passion for natural effects led him into the 

 absurdity of sometimes planting an old dead tree to make 

 the illusion more perfect, we have no hesitation in accord- 

 ing to Kent the merit of first fully establishing, in practice, 

 the reform in taste which Addison and Pope had so com- 

 pletely developed in theory. 



Among the landmarks of the progress of the taste, we 

 must not refuse a passing notice of what seems to have been 

 an unique and beautiful specimen of the new feeling for 

 embellished nature — Leasowes, the " sentimental farm" of 

 Shenstone. From contemporary accounts, it appears to 



