THE ART AND PRACTICE OF 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



INTRODUCTION. 



To define the properties of an art must always be an opiniative 

 endeavour, since conceptions of beauty are varied and ever varying, 

 and the means whereby art can express what is beautiful, appeal 

 with their fascination or their fuller force of conviction rather in the 

 measure of the recipient's appreciation than of the giver's power. 



The function of fine art is to exhibit beauty that ineffable 

 beauty which can stir in the human breast emotions claiming 

 for our better nature kindred with higher things. The architect 

 rears a temple or a cathedral in which effects of light and the com- 

 bination of lines create a feeling of awe that compels an ignorant 

 and careless man to speak in a whisper ; the sculptor or the 

 painter records in form, or simulated form and colour, that con- 

 ception of beauty with which the artist has been gifted ; the 

 composer gives being, by musical tone, to some subtle emotion of 

 our nature that has yearned dumbly within us, till the touch of 

 divine genius gives it distinctness of existence. The poet 

 makes beauty articulate to our reason, seeking that path to the 



