HISTORICAL NOTICES. 19 



Gardening, springs naturally from a love of country life, 

 an attachment to a certain spot, and a desire to render 

 that place attractive a feeling which seems more or less 

 strongly fixed in the minds of all men. But we should 

 convey a false impression, were we to state that it may be 

 applied with equal success to residences of every class and 

 size, in the country. Lawn and trees, being its two essen- 

 tial elements, some of the beauties of Landscape Gardening 

 may, indeed, be shown wherever a rood of grass surface, 

 and half a dozen trees are within our reach ; we may, even 

 with such scanty space, have tasteful grouping, varied sur- 

 face, and agreeably curved walks ; but our art, to appear 

 to advantage, requires some extent of surface its lines 

 should lose themselves indefinitely, and unite agreeably and 

 gradually with those of the surrounding country. 



In the case of large landed estates, its capabilities may 

 be displayed to their full extent, as from fifty to five hun- 

 dred acres may be devoted to a park or pleasure grounds. 

 Most of its beauty, and all its charms, may, however, be 

 enjoyed in ten or twenty acres, fortunately situated, and 

 well treated ; and Landscape Gardening, in America, com- 

 bined and working in harmony as it is with our fine 

 scenery, is already beginning to ^ive us results scarcely less 

 beautiful than those produced by its finest efforts abroad. 

 The lovely villa residences of our noble river and lake 

 margins, when well treated even in a few acres of taste- 

 ful fore-ground, seem so entirely to appropriate the whole 

 adjacent landscape, and to mingle so sweetly in their out- 

 lines with the woods, the valleys, and shores around them, 

 that the effects are often truly enchanting. 



But if Landscape Gardening, in its proper sense, cannot 

 be applied to the embellishment of the smallest cottage 



