32 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



keep these expressions constantly in view, and we hope we 

 shall be able fully to illustrate the difference in the expression 

 of even single trees, in this respect. A few strongly marked ob- 

 jects, either picturesque or simply beautiful, will often confer 

 their character upon a whole landscape, as the destruction of 

 a single group of bold rocks covered with wood, may render 

 a scene, once picturesque, completely insipid. 



A question that may not be unlikely to occur to the novice 

 in these matters is, which is the superior character of Land- 

 scape, considered in reference to the art now before us ? To 

 answer this question directly, would be to side with one or the 

 other of the two schools or parties in Landscape Gardening 

 which waged battle so fiercely in England during the last 

 century, viz : the Picturesque School, at the head of which 

 were Price and Knight, and the more formal school, whose 

 champions were Brown and Repton ; the former, desiring to 

 see all country residences highly picturesque, and the latter, 

 perhaps, verging too much into the rules of an unvarying art. 



There can, however, be little doubt that it is requisite 

 to possess a greater degree of imagination, and perhaps more 

 of that vigour of mind, termed genius, fully to appreciate the 

 beauty of the more picturesque forms of nature. Even 

 among artists, while there are many who are able to feel and 

 portray nature in her ordinary developements, how few can 

 make the canvass glow with the expression of her grander 

 and more picturesque beauties ! And among mere admirers, 

 it is the multitude, that see and feel the power of beauty in 

 her graceful and flowing forms — but only the imaginative 

 and cultivated few, who appreciate her more free and spirited 

 charms. So also, there are perhaps, a thousand who admire 

 the elegant forms and the undulating outlines which pre- 

 dominate in the park or pleasure grounds, as we generally 



