876 



LANDRETH 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



years. At a subsequent date he was made president of 

 the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 

 ture, and vice-president of the United States Agricul- 

 tural Society, and became an active member of many 

 other organizations. 



His literary labors included the publication of the 

 "Illustrated Floral Magazine," started in 1832, and an 

 advanced work for that period. At a later date he wrote 

 much upon husbandry, his graceful style as a writer 

 and his technical knowledge of the subject making his 

 views of much value in the progress of the industry. 

 He edited an American edition of George W. Johnson's 

 "A Dictionary of Modern Gardening," a volume of 635 

 pages, published at Philadelphia in 1847. 



In 1847 the Landreth nursery was removed to Blooms- 

 dale, where Mr. Landreth established what is believed 

 to be the most complete seed-farm in the United States, 

 and where he planted an arboretum which perhaps stands 

 unequaled in this country in the development of its trees. 

 He was an early breeder of the Channel Island cattle, 

 then styled Alderneys, and was among the earliest man- 

 ufacturers of mowing and reaping machinery. In 1872-73 

 he experimented in steam-plowing with a Scotch engine, 

 and in the following year with an American engine. 

 Subsequently, steam-digging and steam-chopping were 

 experimented with at Bloomsdale, and many improve- 

 ments produced in the machine shop of that model 

 farm. 



David Landreth lived until 1880 in the enjoyment and 

 care of the business which had been so much developed 

 in his hands, and which had reached almost its hun- 

 dredth year. The firm is now one of the thirty cente- 

 nary firms in the United States. During a long life he 

 had served his country in connection with agriculture, 

 a pursuit which he dignified by the wide respect he had 

 gained as an old-school country gentleman, and his 

 reputation as an able and learned agriculturist. In early 

 life he had lived amid the plantations of the Landreth 

 nursery, one of the show places of Philadelphia the 

 site now marked by the Landreth School and his vir- 

 tues and character were those of one brought up in inti- 

 mate contact with nature. BURNET LANDRETH. 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING. "Gardening may be 

 divided into three species kitchen gardening parterre- 

 gardening and landskip, or picturesque gardening: 

 which latter is the subject intended in the following 

 pages It consists in pleasing the imagination by scenes 

 of grandeur, beauty, or variety. Convenience merely 

 has no share here ; any farther than as it pleases the 

 imagination." These are the opening lines of "Uncon- 

 nected Thoughts on Gardening," by the poet William 



Shenstone, 1764. These sentences gave the world t 

 term Landscape Gardening, to embody the growing c 

 sire to make grounds like nature. Milton, Addiso 

 Pope, and the Dutch painters, expressed the awakeni: 

 to the charms of the external world and hastened the d, 

 of freedom and naturalness. These and others had pi 

 tested, directly or indirectly, against the artificialisr I 

 of living, as Bacon, also, in the following sentence, h; 

 protested: "As for the making of Knots or Figures, wi 

 divers Colored Earths, they be but toys, you may s 

 as good sights many times in Tarts. * * * * * 

 I do not like Images cut out in Juniper, or other ga 

 den- stuff ; they are for Children." 



One does not know what Shenstone's protest mea* 

 until he knows the style of gardening which had bee 

 and still was in vogue. Gardens were fantastic constru> 

 tions, elaborate with designs and formalities, crampe 

 with geometrical details. A Roman garden (Fig. 1227)ws 

 well enough in its place, but there are other conditior 

 and other ideals. Only rarely can such gardens as thes 

 find the proper setting. If effective, they must be dom 

 nated or supported by architecture. In the freer atmoj 

 phere of the country, they are evidently artificial: the 

 are conceits. The reader will catch the feeling of th 

 formal gardens of a later time by looking at Fig. 122 

 which is a reduction from one of Batty Langley's de 

 signs in his "New Principles of Gardening," 1728 

 Langley seems to have been the extremest of geometri 

 cians. In fact, Part 1 of his book on gardening treat 

 "Of Geometry." Yet his plates suited the taste of th' 

 time. The particular plan which is shown in Fig. 122; 

 he describes as follows: "The House opens to the Nortl 

 upon the Park A, to the East upon the Court B, to th< 

 South upon the Parterre of Grass and Water C ; ant 

 Lastly to the West upon the circular Bason D, fron 

 which leads a pleasant Avenue ZX. The Mount F, if 

 raised with the Earth that came out of the Canal EE 

 and its slope H is planted with Hedges of differem 

 Ever-Greens, that rising behind one another of differenl 

 Colours, have a very good Effect, being view'd from M 

 I, I, are contracted Walks leading up the Mount." The 

 ideas of the time are further reflected in Fig. 1229, which 

 is a reproduction, on a smaller scale, of one of Langley'j 

 pictures of artificial ruins. It is one of his "views of thu 

 Ruins of Buildings, after the old Roman manner, to ter 

 minate such Walks that end in disagreeable Objects ; 

 which Ruins may either be painted upon Canvas, 01 

 actually built in that manner with Brick, and cover'd 

 with Plaistering in Imitation of Stone." 



The awakening love of nature and of the spontaneous 

 life, as expressed in writings and paintings, soon found 

 expression also in gardens. In verse, Pope gave rules 



1227. Gardens of the Pope, on the Quirinal, Rome. Prom Falda's "Li Giardini di Roma.' 



