10 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



fined perceptions of beauty are combined with them." And 

 although music, poetry, and painting, sister fine arts, have in 

 all enlightened countries sooner arrived at perfection than 

 Landscape Gardening, yet the latter offers to the cultivated 

 mind in its more perfect examples, in a considerable degree 

 a union of all these sources of enjoyment ; a species of /m/*- 

 mony, in a pleasing combination of the most fascinating ma- 

 terials of beauty in natural scenery: 'poetic expression in the 

 babbling brook, the picturesque wood, or the peaceful sun-lit 

 turf: and the lovely effects of landscape ^am/m^, realized 

 in the rich, varied, and skilfully arranged whole. 



The object of this charming art, is to create in the grounds 

 of a country residence a kind of polished scenery, producing 

 a delightful effect, either by a species of studied and elegant 

 desig?i, in symmetrical or regular plantations : or by a com- 

 bination of beautiful or picturesque forms, such as we behold 

 in the most captivating passages of general nature. 



The practice of Landscape Gardening has grown out of* 

 that love of country life, and the desire to render our own pro- 

 perty attractive, which naturally exists to a greater or less 

 degree in the minds of all men. In the case of large landed 

 estates, the capabilities of Landscape Gardening may be 

 displayed to their full extent, as from five to five hundred 

 acres may be devoted to a park or pleasure-grounds. But 

 the principles of the art may be applied, and its beauties re- 

 alized to a certain degree, in the space of half an acre of 

 ground — wherever grass will grow, and trees thrive luxu- 

 riantly. 



Two distinct modes of the art widely differing in them- 

 selves, have divided, for some time, the admiration of the 

 world. One is the Ancient, formal or Geometric Style : the 

 other the Modern, Natural, or Irregular Style. The first, cha- 



