Iboracc TKHalpole 275 



abolishes or restrains the modern style of gar- 

 dening, it will be this circumstance of solitari- 

 ness. The greater the scene, the more distant it is 

 probably from the capital, in the neighborhood 

 of which land is too dear to admit considerable 

 extent of property. Men tire of expense that 

 is obvious to few spectators. Still, there is 

 a more eminent danger that threatens the pres- 

 ent, as it has ever done all taste I mean the 

 pursuit of variety. A modern French writer 

 has in a very affected phrase given a just 

 account of this, I will call it, distemper. He 

 says : D 'ennui du beau amene le gout singu- 

 lier. The noble simplicity of the Augustan 

 age was driven out by false taste. The gigan- 

 tic, the puerile, the quaint, and at last the 

 barbarous and the monkish, had each their suc- 

 cessive admirers. Music has been improved till 

 it is a science of tricks and sleight-of-hand ; the 

 sober greatness of Titian is lost, and painting 

 since Carlo Maratti has little more relief than 

 Indian paper. Borromini twisted and curled 

 architecture, as if it was subject to the change 

 of fashions like a head of hair. If we once lose 

 sight of the propriety of landscape in our gar- 

 dens, we shall wander into all the fantastic 

 sharawadgis of the Chinese. We have dis- 

 covered the point of perfection. We have given 

 the true model of gardening to the world. Let 



