448 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



The loveliest, boldest parts, and new arranged : 



Yet as herself approved, herself inspired. 



In their immortal works, thou ne'er shalt find 



Dull uniformity, contrivance quaint, 



Or labored littleness ; but contrasts broad 



And careless lines, whose undulating form 



Plays through the varied canvas. These transplant 



Again on nature : take thy plastic spade, 



It is thy pencil : take thy seeds, thy plants, 



They are thy colors ; and by these repay 



With interest every charm she lent thy art." — [Book I. 



Mr. Mason calls Bacon the prophet and Milton the herald 

 of true taste in gardening. The former, because, in devel- 

 oping the constituent properties of a princely garden, he had 

 largely expatiated upon that admired natural wildness which 

 we now deem the essence of the art. The latter, on account 

 of his having made this natural wildness the leading idea in 

 his exquisite description of paradise. Addison, Pope and 

 Kent he calls the champions of this true taste, because they 

 brought it into execution. He further remarks in a note that 

 Mr. Southcote was the introducer, or rather the inventor of 

 the Ferme orne, of which the poet Shenstone exhibited, in 

 his Leasowes, such a noble example. 



The second book of the " English Garden" proceeds to a 

 practical discussion of the subject, confining itself to the 

 disposition of the ground plan, and the proper formation and 

 arrangement of the paths and fences. The necessity of at- 

 tending constantly to the curvilinear principle is first shown, 

 not only in the formation of the ground plan, with respect to 

 its external boundary, but in its internal swellings and sink- 

 ings, where all abruptness or angular appearances are as much 

 to be avoided as in the form of the outline that surrounds the 



whole. 



" in this, in all, 



Be free, be various, as in nature's self. 

 For in her wildness there is oft an art. 

 Or seeming art, which, by position apt, 

 Arranges shapes unequal, so to save 

 That correspondent poise, which, unpreserved, 

 Would mock our gaze with airy va,cancy. 

 Yet fair Variety, with all her powers, 

 Assists the balance ; 'gainst the barren crag 



