350 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



in lameness and insipidity, a huge basin set down in il:e 

 middle of a green lawn. They are even, in most cases, 

 denied the advantage of shade, except perhaps occasionally 

 a few straggling trees can be said to fulfil that purpose ; 

 for richly tufted margins, and thickets of overhanging 

 shrubs, are accompaniments rare indeed.* 



* Simple and easy as would appear the artificial imitation of these variations 

 of nature, yet to an unpractised hand and a tasteless mind, nothing is really 

 ■nore difficult. To produce meagre right lines and geometrical forms is 

 extremely easy in any of the fine arts, but to give the grace, spirit, and variety 

 of nature, requires both tasteful perception and some practice ; hence, in the 

 infancy of any art, the productions are characterized by extreme meagreness 

 and simplicity ; — of which the first efforts to draw the human figure or to form 

 artificial pieces of water, are good examples. 



Brown, who was one of the early practitioners of the modern style abroad, 

 and who just saw far enough to lay aside the ancient formal method, without 

 appreciating nature sufficiently to be willing to take her for his model, oi- •.• 

 disgraced half of the finest places in England with las tame, bald pieccF .if 

 artificial water, and round, fonnal clumps of trees. Mr. Knight, in in 

 elegant poem, "The Landscape," spiritedly rebuked this practice in Lio 

 following lines: — 



" Shaved to the brink our brooks are taught to flow 

 Where no obtruding leaves or branches grow : 

 While clumps of shrubs bcspot each winding vale 

 Open alike to every gleam and gale : 

 Each secret haunt and deep recess display'd. 

 And intricacy banished with its shade. 



Hence, hence I thou haggard fiend, however call'd, 

 The meagre genius of the bare and bald ; 

 Thy spade and mattock here at length lay down, 

 And follow to the tomb, thy favorite. Brown ; 

 Thy favorite Brown, whose innovating hand 

 First dealt thy curses o'er this fertile land ; 

 First taught the walk in spiral forms to move. 

 And from their haunts the secret Dryads drove ; 

 With clumps bespotted o'er the mountahi's sida. 

 And bade the stream 'twixt banks dose-shaver. ^lidft ; 

 Bani-sh'd the thickets of high tow'ring wood 

 Which hung reflected o'er the glassv flood." 



