34 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



cause for thankfulness had he resisted his impulse 

 to leap the fence, as many beautiful Gardens of the 

 past would have come down to this generation 

 untouched. 



For, as Pope was the pioneer of the new 

 school, Kent was the originator of the Landscape, 

 or Painters' Garden, into which at one time it 

 developed. His great idea was to make in a 

 Garden a landscape composition resembling a 

 picture of Poussin or Claude. His ruling prin- 

 ciples were the great values of light and shade and 

 perspective, and " that Nature abhors a straight 

 line," which resulted in every path being twisted 

 and curved, and the rivers and lakes becoming 

 serpentine ; in fact, " a witty Frenchman suggested 

 that, in order to design an English or Natural 

 Garden, all that was required was to intoxicate 

 your Gardener and follow in his footsteps." 



Kent's love of Nature was so great that " in 

 Kensington Garden he planted dead trees, to give 

 a greater air of truth to the scene ; but he was 

 soon laughed out of this excess," adds Walpole. 

 Of the many places laid out by Kent, perhaps the 

 best remembered are the Gardens at Esher, 



"Where Kent and Nature vied for Pelham's love," 



but Walpole thought that the most engaging of all 

 his works, " being the most elegant and antique," 



