246 ttbe (Barfcett 



the unwary, not to refresh the panting specta- 

 tor, and parterres embroidered in patterns like 

 a petticoat, were but the childish endeavors of 

 fashion and novelty to reconcile greatness to 

 what it had surfeited on. To crown these im- 

 potent displays of false taste, the shears were 

 applied to the lovely wildness of form with 

 which nature has distinguished each various 

 species of tree and shrub. The venerable oak, 

 the romantic beech, the useful elm, even the 

 aspiring circuit of the lime, the regular round 

 of the chestnut, and the almost moulded orange- 

 tree, were corrected by such fantastic admirers 

 of symmetry. The compass and square were 

 of more use in plantations than the nursery- 

 man. The measured walk, the quincunx, and 

 the e*toile imposed their unsatisfying sameness 

 on every royal and noble garden. Trees were 

 headed, and their sides pared away ; many 

 French groves seem green chests set upon 

 poles. Seats of marble, arbors, and summer- 

 houses terminated every vista ; and symmetry, 

 even where the space was too large to permit its 

 being remarked at one view, was so essential, 

 that, as Pope observed : 



" Each alley has a brother, 

 And half the garden just reflects the other." 



Knots of flowers were more defensibly subjected 



