12 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. - 



of an English park up to the house itself. But 

 they were constantly haunted and harassed by 

 the word "picturesque." Was Nature more 

 picturesque when closely followed or carefully 

 improved ? Was it the duty of the landscape 

 gardener to arrange his clumps and belts of trees 

 in the way in which they would look best in a 

 picture ? This was evidently Kent's idea, and 

 Daines Harrington, speaking of him, says it was 

 reserved for him " to realize these beautiful 

 descriptions [in the Faery Queeii\, for which he 

 was peculiarly adapted by being a painter, as 

 the true test of perfection in a modern garden 

 is that a landscape painter would choose it as 

 a composition." Kent's great work seems to 

 have been the carrying out of the alterations at 

 Stowe, on which Bridgeman had been originally 

 employed, and much of the beauty of those 

 famous grounds which, however, were at least 

 as artificial as natural was owing to his taste. 

 The two peculiarities now generally associated 

 with his name are the planting of dead trees to 

 look picturesque, and the constant use of Ha-ha's 



