Introduction 



one imposed upon the other. These were usually 

 in colour, the upper one representing the scene 

 as it existed and the under one the scene as pro- 

 posed. His object, he said, was " not to produce 

 a book of pictures, but to furnish some hints for 

 establishing the fact that true taste in landscape 

 gardening, as well as in all the other polite arts, 

 is not an accidental effect, operating on the out- 

 ward senses, but an appeal to the understanding, 

 which is able to compare, to separate, and to com- 

 bine the various sources of pleasure derived from 

 external objects, and to trace them to some pre- 

 existing cause in the structure of the human 

 mind." It did not seem feasible nor indeed neces- 

 sary to include in this volume all the illustra- 

 tions in Repton's works, but those shown have 

 been selected with discrimination to enforce the 

 main points in his philosophy of landscape art. 

 These are supplemented by a few recently taken 

 photographs of English country-places, the im- 

 provement of which was outlined over a century 

 ago by Repton himself. 



Repton and his work occupy a unique and per- 

 manently important place in the history of land- 

 scape gardening. He came at a time of significant 

 development in his profession, and by his native 

 genius and attainments he secured the patronage 

 of all England. He had opportunity to work out 

 his ideas and ideals under unusually congenial 

 conditions. Le Notre himself, with the support 



