THE TECHNICS OF GARDENING. 135 



beyond ! Nay, what need of artificial lakes at all if 

 there be a running stream hard by ? * 



It is of the utmost importance that Art and 

 Nature should be linked together, alike in the near 

 neighbourhood of the house, and in its far prospect, 

 so that the scene as it meets the eye, whether at a 

 distance or near, should present a picture of a 

 simple whole, in which each item should take its 

 part without disturbing the individual expression of 

 the ground. 



To attain this result, it is essential that the 

 ground immediately about the house should be 

 devoted to symmetrical planning, and to distinctly 

 ornamental treatment ; and the symmetry should 

 break away by easy stages from the dressed to the 

 undressed parts, and so on to the open country, 

 beginning with wilder effects upon the country- 

 boundaries of the place, and more careful and 

 intricate effects as the house is approached. Upon 

 the attainment of this appearance of graduated 

 formality much depends. One knows houses that 

 are well enough in their way, that yet figure as 

 absolute blots upon God's landscape, and that make 



* " All rational improvement of grounds is necessarily founded on 

 a due attention to the CHARACTER and SITUATION of the place to be 

 improved j the former teaches what is advisable, the latter what is 

 possible to be done. The situation of a place always depends on 

 Nature, which can only be assisted, but cannot be entirely changed, 

 or greatly controlled by ART ; but the character of a place is wholly 

 dependent on ART ; thus the house, the buildings, the gardens, the 

 roads, the bridges, and every circumstance which marks the habitation 

 of man must be artificial ; and although in the works of art we may 

 imitate the forms and graces of Nature, yet, to make them truly 

 natural, always leads to absurdity" (Repton, p. 341). 



