45 



and consequence to agiiciilture, it will not do as an append 

 age to any society whatever, not even to the Highland, or 

 Great National Society for the Encouragement of Arts and 

 Manufactures in Scotland. But, were it fortunately placed 

 under a separate and intelligent patronage, the fruits of so 

 judicious an arrangement would ere long become apparent. 

 Well-informed land-holders, useful foresters, and scientific 

 nurserymen would speedily rise up, under the fostering influ- 

 ence of such a society. Facts as well as principles, which 

 are now known only to the studious phytologist, would be- 

 come familiar to all, whether owners of woods, or those 

 engaged in their superintendence ; and, while the properties 

 of individuals were gradually rendered more productive, a 

 great accession would be made to the general wealth and in- 

 telligence of the country.* 



Gardening in its highest sense, or the art of creating or 

 embellishing rural scenery, has, within the last century, been 

 carried to considerable perfection in Britain, and has added 

 one more to the number of the fine arts. It was first struck 

 out by the genius of Kent, in the beginning of the last cen- 

 tury, after having been long before imagined by Bacon, and 

 finely delineated by Milton.t Subsequently, the art was 

 assiduously cultivated by Brown, Repton, and others of that 

 school, although not altogether on principles such as should 

 have regulated it; and it is now nearly perfected, by the 

 more correct judgment of Price, Knight, and Loudon. 

 Whatever there was of unnatural or formal, whether bor- 

 rowed from antiquity, or contrived by modern designers, is 

 now banished from the English garden. The professors 

 themselves of his own school have all followed Repton, in 

 tacitly acknowledging the improvements of the age, and in 

 advancing the public taste. 1 



According to these enlightened principles, places and 



* Note II. f Note III. t Note IV. 



