Vlll PREFACE. 



desideratum so much felt at present. While we have 

 treatises, in abundance, on the various departments of the 

 arts and sciences, there has not appeared even a single 

 essay on the elegant art of Landscape Gardening. Hun- 

 dreds of individuals who wish to ornament their grounds 

 and embellish their places, are at a loss how to proceed, 

 from the want of some leading principles, with the 

 knowledge of which they would find it comparatively easy 

 to produce delightful and satisfactory results. 



In the following pages I have attempted to trace out 

 such principles, and to suggest practicable methods of 

 embellishing our Rural Residences, on a scale com- 

 mensurate to the views and means of our proprietors. 

 While I have availed myself of the works of European 

 authors, and especially those of Britain, where Landscape 

 Gardening was first raised to the rank of a fine art, I have 

 also endeavored to adapt my suggestions especially to this 

 country and to the peculiar wants of its inhabitants. 



As a people descended from the English stock, we 

 inherit much of the ardent love of rural life and its pursuits 

 which belongs to that nation ; but our peculiar position, in 

 a new world that required a population full of enterprise 

 and energy to subdue and improve its vast territory, has, 

 until lately, left but little time to cultivate a taste for Rural 

 Embellishment. But in the older states, as wealth has 

 accumulated, the country become populous, and society 

 more fixed in its character, a return to those simple and 

 fascinating enjoyments to be found in country life and 

 rural pursuits, is witnessed on every side. And to this 

 innate feeling, out of which grows a strong attachment to 

 natal soil, we must look for a counterpoise to the great 

 tendency towards constant change, and the restless spirit 

 of emigration, which form part of our national character ; 

 and which, though to a certain extent highly necessary to 

 our national pros'^)erity, are, on the other hand, opposed to 

 social and domestic happiness. " In the midst of the 

 continual movement which agitates a democratic com- 

 munity," says the most philosophical writer who has yet 

 discussed our institutions, " the tie which unites one 

 generation to another is relaxed or broken ; every man 



