266 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



debility, the disappointments, and the dissolution of hu- 

 manity, which, by cooperating with the dreary aspect of 

 autumnal nature and the temperature of the air, rilled 

 the mind with melancholy and inclined it to serious 

 reflections. 



As the aim of the Chinese in their gardens was said 

 to be not only to please but to terrify or surprise the 

 spectator, they were accredited with almost inconceivable 

 devices intended to produce these effects. For instance, 

 Sir William Chambers describes scenes of terror in 

 gloomy woods, or dark caverns where everything had 

 been blighted or devastated. Bats, owls, vultures, and 

 other birds of prey dwelt in these groves ; wolves, tigers, 

 and jackals howled in the forests; while half-famished 

 animals wandered over the plains where gibbets, crosses, 

 wheels, and every instrument of torture were visible from 

 the thoroughfare. The surprises he describes are even 

 more incredible. 



To us it does not seem strange that some people 

 doubted the accuracy of these descriptions, although Sir 

 William declares in the second edition of his book that 

 it was all the exact truth. At any rate many writers 

 followed his suggestions in their theories, and many 

 garden makers put them into practice. 



The emotional or sentimental garden found a prac- 

 tical exponent in William Shenstone. He wrote some 

 "Unconnected Thoughts on Gardening," in which he 



