GENERAL PKINCirLES. 



21 



knew did not exist in the country at all, were substituted for the natural ones; 

 and even in this case, though the character of art would be maintained, yet 

 the associations connected with solid natural rocks would be so effectually 

 obliterated, that, on the whole, the interest of the scene would be destroyed. 

 Neither in landscape-gardening, nor in any other art, ought every thing to 

 be made to give way to one view of a subject. The most complete mode of 

 appropriating the rocky bank at Piercefield, as a work of art, would be, by 

 the artificial manner of conducting a walk throngh it, and by the manner in 

 which this walk is constructed. Such a walk should be carried alonar on a 

 level, or on a regular slope or slopes; and the contrast of such a line, and the 

 rough and ever-varying natural surface, would alone indicate the employment 

 of art. Another mode would be to remove all the indigenous vegetation above 

 and below it, and to supply its place by foreign vegetation of a similar character. 

 Instead of the common oak, which is the prevailing tree at present, substitute 

 the evergreen and the Turkey oaks ; and, instead of the common brambles, 

 sloes, and thorns, which protrude from the rocks, substitute the thorns of 

 Greece and America, and the laurustinus, the arbutus, and the cistus of Italy. 



32. In the case of buildings in the artificial landscapes created by land- 

 scape-gardening, art is always recognised in the building itself, that being 

 indisputably an artificial object: but the principle of the recognition of art is 

 not always perceived in the placing of the building : on the contrarj'^, nothing 

 is more common, in arranging the grounds round an edifice, than a violation 

 of this principle. Wherever a building, whether a house, an obelisk, a column, 

 or a statue, is set down among trees and plants, and appears to rise up among 

 them as if it were itself a tree or a plant, there will be found a want of the 

 artificial principle. This want is produced by the vegetation being placed 

 too near the artificial object, and by the trees and ground not having been 

 treated according to art. An artificial object ought, surely, not to appear to 

 grow out of the gi-ound, like a natural one: it ought to grow out according to 

 art, — which indicates that it ought to rise from an artificial basement ; and 

 that the ordinary vegetation of the spot ought to be kept at some distance 

 from it. May not creepers be planted against it? Yes ; because the planting 

 and training of these indicate design and intention, and enable the spectator 

 to recognise art. We do not say that it is always advisable to plant creepers 

 against a building ; because there are a variety of circumstances to be taken 

 into view before any one point can be determined : we merely say that there 

 is nothing in the principle of the recognition of art at variance with the use of 

 creepers, where their use is not at variance with any other principle. 



33. Jrt is easily recognised in all ivalJcs and roads ; but not always artist-like 



art. The uniformity 

 of the breadth, and 

 the evenness of the 

 surface, of a walk 

 may secure it the 

 character of art, 

 while this character 

 may be counteracted 

 by the footpath-like 

 junction of one walk 

 with another, as in 



