60 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



upon the characteristics of these two species of beauty in 

 all scenery. To assist the reader in this kind of discrimi- 

 nation, we shall keep these expressions constantly in view, 

 and we hope we shall be able fully to illustrate the differ- 

 ence in the expression of even single trees, in this respect. 

 A few strongly marked objects, either picturesque or simply 

 beautiful, will often confer their character upon a whole 

 landscape ; as the destruction of a single group of bold 

 rocks, covered with wood, may render a scene, once pictu- 

 resque, completely insipid. 



The early writers on the modern style were content with 

 trees allowed to grow in their natural forms, and with an 

 easy assemblage of sylvan scenery in the pleasure-grounds, 

 which resembled the usual woodland features of nature. 

 The effect of this method will always be interesting, and an 

 agreeable effect will always be the result of following the 

 simplest hints derived from the free and luxuriant forms of 

 nature. No residence in the country can fail to be pleasing, 

 whose features are natural groups of forest trees, smooth 

 lawn, and hard gravel walks. 



But this is scarcely Landscape Gardening in the true 

 sense of the word, although apparently so understood by 

 many writers. By Landscape Gardening, we understand 

 not only an imitation, in the grounds of a country residence, 

 of the agreeable forms of nature, but an expressive, harmo- 

 nious, and refined i?nitation* In Landscape Gardening, 



* " Thus, there is a beauty of nature and a beauty of art. To copy the 

 beauty of nature cannot be called being an artist in the highest sense of the 

 word, as a mechanical talent only is requisite for this. The beautiful in art 

 depends on ideas; and the true artist, therefore, must possess, together with the 

 talent for technical execution, that genial power which revels freely in rich 

 forms, and is capable of producing and animating them. It is by this, that the 

 Jierit of the artist and his production is to be judged ; and these cannot be 



