Landscape (Garden ing 



ited extent, exhibit a highly graceful or picturesque epitome 

 of natural beauty. Landscape Gardening differs from gar- 

 dening in its common sense, in embracing the whole scene 

 immediately about a country house, which it softens and 

 refines, or renders more spirited and striking by the aid of 

 art. In it we seek to embody our ideal of a rural home; 

 not through plots of fruit trees, and beds of choice flowers, 

 though these have their place, but by collecting and combin- 

 ing beautiful forms in trees, surfaces of ground, buildings, 

 and walks, in the landscape surrounding us. It is, in short, 

 the beautiful, embodied in a home scene. And we attain 

 it by the removal or concealment of everything uncouth 

 and discordant, and by the introduction and preservation of 

 forms pleasing in their expression, their outlines, and their 

 fitness for the abode of man. In the orchard, we hope to 

 gratify the palate; in the flower garden, the eye and the 

 smell; but in the landscape garden we appeal to that sense 

 of the beautiful and the perfect, which is one of the highest 

 attributes of our nature. 



This embellishment of nature, which we call Landscape 

 Gardening, springs naturally from a love of country life, 

 an attachment to a certain spot, and a desire to render 

 that place attractive - - a feeling which seems more or less 

 strongly fixed in the minds of all men. But we should 

 convey a false impression, were we to state that it may be 

 applied with equal success to residences of every class and 

 size, in the country. Lawn and trees, being its two essen- 

 tial elements, some of the beauties of Landscape Gardening 

 may, indeed, be shown wherever a rood of grass surface 

 and half a dozen trees are within our reach; we may, even 

 with such scanty space, have tasteful grouping, varied sur- 

 face, and agreeably curved walks; but our art, to appear 

 to advantage, requires some extent of surface - - its lines 

 should lose themselves indefinitely, and unite agreeably and 

 gradually with those of the surrounding country. 



In the case of large landed estates, its capabilities may 

 be displayed to their full extent, as from fifty to five hun- 

 dred acres may be devoted to a park or pleasure grounds. 



