LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



877 



1228. One of Langley's " Designs for gardens that lye irregularly to the Grand House." 1728. 



I the laying out of a spontaneous garden. The accom- 

 liying plan of Shenstone's garden, the Leasowes 

 Ig. 1230), and the picture of a glimpse therein 



g. 1:231), show how far his conceptions were removed 

 fin those of Langley, howsoever much they may fall 

 > rr of the ideals of the present day. A full descrip- 



I 1 li;ts been left us of the Leasowes. Here is a glimpse : 

 " issing through a small gate at the bottom of the fine 

 - -liing lawn that surrounds the house, you enter upon 

 jviu ling path, with a piece of water on your right. 

 '.<> \> ah and water, over- shadowed with trees that grow 

 i n the slopes of this narrow dingle, render the scene 

 j >nre cool, gloomy, solemn, and sequestered; and forms 

 : -<ri'iking a contraste to the lively scene you have just 

 It. that you seem all on a sudden landed in a subter- 



lenus kind of region. Winding forward down the val- 

 : . you pass beside a small root-house, where on a tablet 

 K these lines: 



'Here in cool grot, and mossy cell, 

 We rural fays and faeries dwell; 

 Tho' rarely seen by mortal eye, 

 When the pale moon, ascending high, 

 Darts thro yon limes her quivering beams, 

 We frisk it near these crystal streams*' " 



: The garden-art of the old time was largely a corollary 

 architecture. The garden-art of the present time, 

 rticularly amongst English-speaking peoples, exists 

 r its own sake. Yet, one cannot say that the old-time 

 rden-art is unlovely, or that it contradicts the canons 

 good taste. The two belong to different categories 

 aesthetic feeling, and the mere fact that both of them 

 e plant-subjects does not make them comparable, 

 irdeu-art, like painting or music or literature, develops 

 ong racial or national lines. The Latins and their 

 scendants have liked the formal and conventional 

 irdens; and since these gardens express the personal 

 id national emotions, they need no apology, notwith- 

 anding the fact they are condemned by many land- 

 ape gardeners. 



A different type of endeavor is that which attempts to 

 terpret nature in the making of landscapes. The ideal 

 ndscape garden, like the ideal landscape painting, 

 :presses or emphasizes some single thought or feeling. 

 s expression may be gay, bold, retired, quiet, florid; 

 it if it is natural, its expression will conform to the 

 ace and the purpose, and the expressions are not mat- 

 rs of rule. It should be a picture, not a collection of 



interesting objects. Mere planting and grading do not 

 make a landscape garden: in fact; they often spoil it. 

 It is not enough to plant : the plants must be in the 

 right place. A yard or a lawn with bushes or flower- 

 beds scattered over it may be interesting as a mare 

 garden, but it is not a landscape garden. The Italian 

 gardens were hardly landscape gardens. A real landscape 

 garden has open breadth, space, atmosphere. It usually 

 has an open center with mass-planted sides, and vistas 

 to the off scape. Incidentally, it may be ornamented; 

 yet many persons even confound ornamental garden- 

 ing with Landscape Gardening : it would be as proper 

 to confound house-painting with architecture. Figs. 

 1227 and 1232 show the contrasts of a mere garden and 

 a landscape garden. Compare Plates XIV and XV. 



It will be seen from the above that the term Land- 

 scape Gardening precisely expresses the art of mak- 

 ing a garden or tame area which shall be a landscape 

 or picture. Yet, amongst the profession, the term land- 

 scape architecture is preferred. This term borrows the 

 dignity of architecture, and is useful in a professional 

 way. The writer much prefers the term Landscape 

 Gardening ; but it is apparent that the term landscape 

 architecture is growing in favor with the profession, and 

 there is little use in debating over a mere term. Properly 

 speaking, the terms Landscape Gardening and landscape 

 architecture are not synonymous, although in practice 

 they are so used. It is not every place which is adapted 

 to the making of a landscape picture. Formal gardens 

 are often more to be desired than natural ones. They 

 may conform to the principles of art, but it is the 

 art of formal gardens, not of natural gardens. Too 

 often have formal gardens been judged from the view- 

 point of the natural or landscape garden, and hence 

 confusion has arisen. There is now a slow but whole- 

 some reaction against the too exclusive use of the true 

 landscape garden. In practice, however, one cannot 

 separate the two, so that one practitioner is, or should 

 be, both landscape gardener and landscape architect. 

 So it comes that the term landscape architecture stands 

 for the whole art of laying out grounds. The term is 

 therefore broader than its etymology would suggest: the 

 word "architect" should be taken in its general sense of 

 contriver or planner, rather than in its specific one of 

 builder. It is the nature-like landscape garden, rather 

 than the formalesque garden, which the writer has in 

 mind in the advice which is given in this article. The 



