SEPTEMBER. 



401 



They give the idea of a hermitage in the midst of a wil- 

 derness. 



He regrets with Mr. Price the destruction of so many ven- 

 erable old gardens, and declares in favor of many parts of the 

 old school of gardening. It was indeed high time that some 

 one should interfere as Mr. Price did. The garden, artificial 

 in its structure, its shelter, its climate and its soil, which 

 every consideration of taste, beauty and convenience recom- 

 mended to be kept near the mansion, and maintained as its 

 appendage, in the highest state of ornamental decoration, 

 consistent with the character of the house, has, by a sweep- 

 ing sentence of exile, been condemned to wear the coarsest 

 and most humbling form. He disapproves of the custom of 

 removing it to a distance from the house, and seems to con- 

 sider it the proper subject of profuse decoration, while he 

 would deny the propriety of extending these decorations pro- 

 fusely into grounds outside of the garden. 



Speaking of the park, he says, the space of ground, set 

 apart for a park of deer, must, to answer its purpose, possess 

 the picturesque qualities which afford the greatest scope for 

 the artist. There ought to be a variety of broken ground, 

 of copsevvood, and of growing timber — of land and of water. 

 The soil and herbage must be left in its natural state. The 

 long fern, among which the fawns delight to repose, must not 

 be destroyed. In short, the stag, one of the freeest denizens 

 of the forest, can only be kept under even comparative re- 

 straint, by taking care that all around him intimates a com- 

 plete state of forest and wilderness. But the character of the 

 abode, which is required by these noble animals of the chase, 

 is precisely the same which, from its beautiful effects of light 

 and shadow, from its lonely and sequestered character, from 

 the variety and intricacy of its glades, from the numerous 

 and delightful details which it affords on every point, makes 

 the strongest and most pleasing impression on all who are 

 alive to natural beauty. It will be perceived that Scott ad- 

 heres to the original idea of a park, which was a place for 

 the animals of the chase, and not as at present, a grazing 

 pasture for cattle, half covered with trees. 



VOL. XXII. NO. IX. 51 



