On planting and laying out Grounds. 301 



effects. Thus, the rough foreground is generally made use 

 of to aid in producing the effect of distance in the more light 

 and delicately painted parts of the picture. As to the rugged 

 trees, they are not in all pictures ; if you find them in almost 

 every piece of Salvator Rosa, you will seldom or never see 

 them in Claude or Poussin. But, even if they were to be 

 found in the paintings of these artists, it does not follow that 

 you are to imitate them in garden scenery. Do not forget 

 that the beauties of landscape-painting are to be referred to 

 as tests, and not as subjects of servile imitation. The pro- 

 portion or connection of one part with another is to be tried 

 by the proportions or connections which are imitated from 

 nature by landscape-painters. In short," continued I, " it is 

 principles that we are to adopt from the great landscape- 

 painters, and not mere forms, which have often nothing to 

 do with gardening." 



After expatiating on Girardin's fundamental principle, of 

 the unity of the whole, and the connection of the parts, till, 

 I believe, my patron was bewildered, he at last asked me 

 whether these principles were generally acknowledged by 

 those who had employed me in France and Germany. Now 

 is my time for a victory, thought I ; and I told him, " Cer- 

 tainly, in both countries, by all the men of rank and of 

 reputation for taste." This reconciled him immediately to 

 my dictum ; and I had not only the group preserved, but 

 every thing else my own way. The scene of my operations, 

 however, has been since sold, and my patron laid on the shelf 

 {mit hors de combat). 



Thus, Sir, you see that there are at least two ways in 

 which a professional man may carry ideas into effect: by 

 establishing from precedent his authority as a man of taste, 

 after which he becomes an autocrat in his profession ; or by 

 reasoning upon each particular part of his plan, and carrying 

 conviction on each separately to his employer. The last may 

 be fitting for a young man ; but, I can assure you, it is nei- 

 ther an easy nor an agreeable task, at least in this country, 

 which is far behind yours in matters of taste. * I shall con- 



* Not so very far. We could point out places in the neighbourhood of 

 London, displaying the same sort of crudities as those mentioned in this 

 paper, and even greater ones. As to the absurdity of placing a statue 

 on a square and round column, it is not greater than may be seen in one 

 of our suburban squares, where two half columns, bought at the sale of 

 the front of the old Opera House, support a Russian eagle. For other 

 absurdities of a like kind, we refer our readers to the notice, in the Tour 

 of a German Prince, of a certain Stanmore Villa, as laid out and decorated 

 by a retired printseller, now a Middlesex magistrate. — Cond. 



