HISTORICAL NOTICES. 19 



which is there called the English or natural style, yet in 

 the neighbourhood of many of the capitals, especially those 

 of the south of Europe, the taste for the geometric or ancient 

 style of gardening still prevails to a considerable extent — 

 partially no doubt because that style admits, with more 

 facility, of those classical and architectural accompaniments 

 of vases, statues, busts, etc. — the passion for which per- 

 vades a people rich in ancient and modern sculptural works 

 of art. Indeed many of the Italian gardens are more striking 

 from their profusion of statues, busts, and other mural orna- 

 ments, interspersed with fountains and jets-d'eau, than from 

 the beauty or rarity of their vegetation or from their ar- 

 rangement. 



In tlie United States, it is highly improbable that we shall 

 ever witness such splendid examples of landscape gardens 

 as those abroad, to which we have alluded. Here the rights 

 of man are held to be equal ; and if there are no enormous 

 parks and no class of men whose wealth is hereditary, there 

 is, at least, what is more gratifying to the feelings of the 

 philanthropist, the almost entire absence of a very poor class 

 in the country ; while we have, on the other hand, a larger 

 class of independent landholders, who, in many respects, are 

 intelligent and well educated, than any other country in the 

 civilized world can at present boast. 



The number of individuals amono: us who possess wealth 

 and refinement sufficient to enable them to enjoy the plea- 

 sures of a country life, and who desire in their private resi- 

 dences so much of the beauties of landscape gardening and 

 rural embellishment, as may be realized without any enor- 

 mous expenditure of means, is every day increasing. And 

 although, until lately, a very meagre plan of laying out the 

 grounds about a residence, was all that we could lav claim 



