72 The Art of Landscape Gardening 



volume : because in this, as in every other study, reflec- 

 tion and observation on those things which we do 

 know teach us to regret our circumscribed knowledge, 

 and the difficulty of reducing to fixed principles the 

 boundless variety of the works of nature. 



If any general principles could be established in this 

 art, I think that they might be deduced from the joint 

 consideration of relative fitness or utility and compara- 

 tive proportion or scale; the former may be referred to 

 the mind, the latter to the eye, yet these two must be 

 inseparable. 



Under relative fitness I include the comfort, the 

 convenience, the character, and every circumstance of 

 a place that renders it the desirable habitation of man 

 and adapts it to the uses of each individual proprietor ; 

 for it has occasionally happened to me to have been 

 consulted on the same subject by two diff^erent propri- 

 etors, when my advice has been materially varied, to 

 accord with the respective circumstances or intentions 

 of each. 



The second is that leading principle which depends 

 on sight, and which I call comparative proportion ; be- 

 cause all objects appear great or small by comparison 

 only, or as they have a reference to other objects with 

 which they are liable to be compared. 



At Holkham, about twenty years ago, the lofty 

 obelisk seen from the portico appeared to be sur- 

 rounded by shrubbery, but on a nearer approach I 

 found that these apparent shrubs were really large 

 trees, and only depressed by the greater height of the 

 obelisk. A similar instance occurs at Welbeck ; the 

 large grove of oaks, seen from the house across 

 the water, consists of trees most remarkable for their 

 straight and lofty stems ; yet, to a stranger, their 



