EEPOET OF COMMITTEE ON ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 211 



and ever-changing groups and colors. By his compositions he 

 adds new beaut}'^ to things admirable, and puts out of sight what- 

 ever is distasteful ; always elevating and presenting the best, but 

 concealing the worst; managing the harmonies and contrasts with 

 such skill that the picturesque and the beautiful, like the lion and 

 the lamb, may lie down together without startling the beholder. 

 He uses sunshine and shadow for tinting and flowering, and forgets 

 not breadth or variety. All his plantings, though differing in kind, 

 are so naturallj'- connected or so imperceptibly blended, or led off 

 by detachments or liveried ushers, as to cause no breaks or dis- 

 cord. He never belittles his ground, but enlarges it to the sight 

 by a concealment of its boundaries and by the opening of vistas 

 and distances beyond. He has no mannerism, but makes the most 

 of all peculiarities, and treats each subject according to its needs ; 

 making what is tame attractive, by polish or color, or by new ob- 

 jects of interest, and renders what is wild all the more picturesque, 

 by adding to its roughness and entanglements, or by affording a 

 glimpse at its hidden secrets. 



Some of the books speak favorably of groups of tioo or more 

 trees or shrubs ; but the artist seldom employs an even number for 

 small groups or pictures ; his groupings of objects, animate or 

 inanimate, are generally of odd numbers. And as the finest 

 views give the greatest pleasure, he reserves them, if possible, for 

 the mansion, where the family and their visitors ma}^ always 

 enjoy them without effort, nor find them exhausted by the 

 " approach." He eschews small things in a large place, as Job 

 did evil. He does not rank contracted pools as water views, or 

 crook his paths, like a serpent's, without a visible reason. If, 

 from any cause, a turn is wanted, he artfully contrives an obstacle 

 to slioiv a reason ; for, whatever ajjj^ears to be unreasonable, is not 

 natural or agreeable. 



These are some of the rules which govern the ornamental com- 

 binations of earth's beneficent productions, and the more natural 

 they seem, the more perfect is the work. Ars est celare artem. 



" Who can paint 

 Like Nature? Cau imagination boast, 

 Amid its gay creation, hues like hers ; 

 Or can it mix them with that matchless skill 

 And lose them in each other, as appears 

 In every bud that blows? " 



