446 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



might have been used by the author, who treats of general 

 scenery", and says but little of Gardening in its true sense. 



In the author's own words, " the first book contains the 

 general principles of the art, which are shown to be no other 

 than those which constitute beauty in the sister art of land- 

 scape painting ; beauty which results from a well chosen 

 variety of curv^es, in contradistinction to that of architecture, 

 which arises from a judicious symmetry of right lines, and 

 which is here shown to have afforded the principle on which 

 that formal disposition of garden ground, which our ancestors 

 borrowed from the French and Dutch, proceeded ; a principle 

 never adopted by nature herself, and, therefore, constantly to 

 be avoided by those whose business it is to embellish nature." 

 He condemns, therefore, the dull uniformity of vistas, and the 

 puerile conceits of the Chinese and Dutch gardens, and sets 

 lip nature as a model in all attempts to improve upon her 

 beauties, repeating Pope's precept, 



" Consult Ihe genius of the place in all " 



With regard to what he has written against the creation of 

 vistas and avenues, the author remarks in a note that he is 

 far from denying that they have in themselves a considerable 

 share of intrinsic beauty. He only asserts that their beauty 

 is not picturesque, and that, therefore, it is to be rejected by 

 those who follow picturesque principles. It accords only 

 with architectural works. Where the artist proceeds on ar- 

 chitectural principles, vistas are admissible. Hence the 

 French, who follow these rules, have in their Dictionary of 

 Sciences an article on the " Architecture of Gardening." He 

 thinks, however, that when we consider that neither Ponssiii 

 nor Claude ever copied this kind of beauties on their canvas, 

 we should allow that these two principles oppose one another, 

 and that whenever they appear together, they offend the eye 

 of the beholder. If, therefore, vistas are ever to be admitted 

 or retained, it is only where they form an approach to some 

 superb mansion, so situated that the principal prospect and 

 ground allotted to picturesque improvement lie on the other 

 side, and so that the two different modes of planting can 

 never appear together from any given point of view. 



