354 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



this principle would naturally lead the first artists in garden- 

 ing to the production of uniformity, may easily be conceived, 

 as even at present, when so different a system prevails, the 

 common people universally follow the first system ; and even 

 men of the best taste, in the cultivation of waste and neg- 

 lected lands, still enclose them by uniform lines, and in regu- 

 lar divisions, as more immediately signifying what they wish 

 should be signified — their industry or spirit in their improve- 

 ment. 



As gardens, however, are both a costly and permanent sub- 

 ject, and are consequently less liable to the influence of 

 fashion, this taste would not easily be altered ; and the princi- 

 pal improvements which they would receive, would consist, 

 rather in the greater employment of uniformity and expense, 

 than in the introduction of any new design. The whole 

 history of antiquity, accordingly, contains not a single instance 

 where this character was deviated from, in a spot considered 

 solely as a garden ; and till within this century, and in this 

 country (England) it seems not anywhere to have been 

 imagined, that a garden was capable of any other beauty 

 than what might arise from utility, and from the display of 

 art and design. The additional ornaments of gardening 

 have in every country partaken of the same character, and 

 have been directed to the purpose of increasing the appear- 

 ance and the beauty of design. Hence jet-d'eaus, artificial 

 fountains, regular cascades, trees in the form of animals, &/C., 

 have in all countries been the principal ornaments of garden- 

 ing. The violation of the usual appearances of nature, in 

 such objects, strongly exhibited the employment of art. 



The variety which distinguishes the modern art of garden- 

 ing in Great Britain, beautiful as it undoubtedly is, appears 

 not to be equally natural to this art as it might be shown to be 

 to others. It is at least of very late origin. It was to be 

 found in no other country, until English taste set an example ; 

 and the ancients never seem to have imagined that the prin- 

 ciple of variety was applicable to gardening, or to have de- 

 viated in any respect from the regularity or uniformity of their 

 ancestors. Hence the author thinks the modern taste in gar- 



