CHINESE PARKS AND GARDENS. 463 



"The art of laying out gardens consists in an endeavour 

 to combine cheerfulness of aspect, luxuriance of growth, 

 shade, solitude, and repose, in such a manner that the senses 

 may be deluded by an imitation of rural nature. Diversity, 

 which is the main advantage of free landscape, must, therefore, 

 be sought in a judicious choice of soil, an alternation of chains 

 of hills and valleys, gorges, brooks, and lakes covered with 

 aquatic plants. Symmetry is wearying, and ennui and dis- 

 gust will soon be excited in a garden where every part betrays 

 constraint and art."* The description given by Sir George 

 Staunton of the great imperial garden of Zhe-hol,f north of 

 the Chinese wall, corresponds with these precepts of Lieu- 

 tscheu precepts to which our ingenious contemporary, who 

 formed the charming park of Muskau,J will not refuse his 

 approval. 



In the great descriptive poem written in the middle of the 

 last century, by the Emperor Kien-long, in praise of the 

 former Mantchou capital, Mukden, and of the graves of his 

 ancestors, the most ardent admiration is expressed for free 

 nature, when but little embellished by art. The poetic prince 

 shows a happy power in fusing the cheerful images of the lux- 

 uriant freshness of the meadows, of the forest-crowned hills 

 and the peaceful dwellings of men, with the sombre picture of 

 the tombs of his forefathers. The sacrifices which he offers in 

 obedience to the rites prescribed by Confucius, and the pious 

 remembrance of the departed monarchs and warriors, form 

 the principal objects of this remarkable poem. A long enu- 

 meration of the wild plants and animals that are natives of 

 the region is wearisome, like every other didactic work : but 

 the blending of the visible impressions produced by the land- 

 scape, which serves, as it were, for the background of the pic- 

 ture, with the exalted objects of the ideal world, with the fulfil- 

 ment of religious duties, together with the mention of great 

 historical events, gives a peculiar character to the whole com- 

 position. The feeling of adoration for mountains, which was 



* See the work last quoted, pp. 318-320. 



t Sir George Staunton, Account of the Embassy of the Earl of 

 Macartney to China, vol. ii. p. 245. 



J Prince Puckler-Muskau, Andeutungen ilber Landscliaftsgartnerei, 

 1834. Compare also his Picturesque Descriptions of the Old and New 

 English Parks, as well as that of the Egyptian Gardens of Schubra. 



