LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



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1228 One of Langley s Designs for gardens that lye irregularly to the Grand Ho 



for the laying out of a spontaneous garden. The accom- 

 panying plan of Shenstone's garden, the Leasowes 

 (Fig. 1230), and the picture of a glimpse therein 

 (Fig. 1231), show how far his conceptions were removed 

 from those of Langley, howsoever much they may fall 

 short of the ideals of the present day. A full descrip- 

 tion has been left us of the Leasowes. Here is a glimpse: 

 "Passing through a small gate at the bottom of the fine 

 swelling lawn that surrounds the house, you enter upon 

 a, winding path, with a piece of water on your right. 

 The path and water, over-shadowed with trees that grow 

 upon the slopes of this narrow dingle, render the scene 

 atonce cool, gloomy, solemn, and sequestered ; and forms 

 so striking a contraste to the lively scene you have just 

 left, that you seem all on a sudden landed in a subter- 

 raneous kind of region. Winding forward down the val- 

 ley, you pass beside a small root-house, where on a tablet 

 are these lines : 



'Here in cool grot, and mossy cell, 

 We rural fays and faeries dwell; 

 Tho' rarely seen by mortal eye, 

 When the pale moon, ascending high. 

 Darts thro yon limes her quivering beams. 

 We frisk it near these crystal streams.' " 



The garden-art of the old time was largely a corollary 

 of architecture. The garden-art of the present time, 

 particularly amongst English-speaking peoples, exists 

 for its own sake. Yet, one cannot say that the old-time 

 garden-art is unlovely, or that it contr;ulicts tin- ciiiious 

 of good taste. The two belong to dittVivnt raicKui-iis 

 of esthetic feeling, and the mere fact that both of them 

 use plant-subjects does not make them comparable. 

 Garden-art, like painting or music or literature, develops 

 along racial or national lines. The Latins and their 

 descendants have liked the formal and conventional 

 gardens; and since these gardens express the personal 

 and national emotions, they need no apology, notwith- 

 standing the fact they are condemned by many land- 

 scape gardeners. 



A different type of endeavor is that which attempts to 

 interpret nature in the making of landscapes. The ideal 

 landscape garden, like the ideal landscape painting, 

 expresses or emphasizes some single thought or feeling. 

 Its expression may be gay, bold, retired, quiet, florid; 

 but if it is natural, its expression will conform to the 

 place and the purpose, and the expressions are not mat- 

 ters of rule. It should be a picture, not a collection of 



interesting objects. Mere planting and grading do not 

 make a landscape garden: in fact, they often spoil it. 

 It is not enough to plant : the plants must be in the 

 rigiit place. A yard or a lawn with bushes or flower- 

 beds scattered over it may be interesting as a m^re 

 garden, but it is not a landscape garden. The Italian 

 gardens were hardly landscape gardens. A real landscape 

 garden has open breadth, space, atmosphere. It usually 

 has an open center with mass-planted sides, and vistas 

 to the offscape. Incidentally, it may be ornamented; 

 yet many persons even confound ornamental garden- 

 ing with Landscape Gardening : it would be as proper 

 to confound house-painting with architecture. Figs. 

 1227 and 1232 show the contrasts of a mere garden and 

 a landscape garden. Compare Plates XIV and XV. 



It will be seen from the above that the term Land- 

 scape Gardening precisely expresses the art of mak- 

 ing a garden or tame area which shall be a landscape 

 or picture. Yet, amongst the profession, the term land- 

 scape architecture is preferred. This term borrows the 

 dignity of architecture, and Is useful in a professional 

 way. The writer much prefers the term Landscape 

 Gardening ; but it is apparent that the term landscape 

 architecture is gi'owing in favor with the profession, and 

 there is little use in debating over a mere term. Properly 

 speaking, the terms Landscape Gardening and landscape 

 architecture are not synonymous, although in practice 

 they are so used. It is not every place which is adapted 

 to the making of a landscape picture. Formal gardens 

 are often more to be desired than natural ones. They 

 may conform to the principles of art, but it is the 

 art of formal gardens, not of natural gardens. Too 

 often have formal gardens been judged from the view- 

 point of the natural or landscape garden, and hence 

 confusion has arisen. There is now a slow but whole- 

 some reaction against the too exclusive use of the true 

 landscape garden. In practice, however, one cannot 

 separate the two, so that one practitioner is, or should 

 be, both landscape gardener and landscape architect. 

 So it comes that the term landscape architecture stands 

 for the whole art of laying out grounds. The term is 

 therefore broader than its etymology would suggest: the 

 word "architect" should be taken in its general sense of 

 contriver or planner^ rather than in its specific one of 

 builder. It is the nature-like landscape garden, rather 

 than the formalesque garden, which the writer has in 

 mind in the advice which is given in this article. The 



