450 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



Await to bless thy votary. Nurtured thus 

 In tranquil groves, listening to nature's voice, 

 The wise Sidonian* lived ; a garden's care 

 His only thought, its charms his only pride." 



The third book commences with a poetical tribute to the 

 memory of the poet Gray, the intimate friend of the author, 

 and one who, it seems, was disposed to condemn the art of 

 landscape gardening as mere caprice. He is represented as 

 saying to the author, 



" Why waste thy numbers on a trivial art 

 That ill can mimic even the humblest charms 

 Of all-majestic nature !" 



Mason agreed with his friend in his love of nature, but was 

 not guided by his jtidgment with respect to the art of im- 

 proving her charms. 



This book proceeds in pointing out the method of adding 

 natural ornament to the ground plan by means of wood and 

 water. " Somebody (remarks the author) has said, rather 

 quaintly, yet certainly not without good meaning, that 'water 

 is the eye and wood the eye-brow of nature,' and if so, there 

 is surely no impropriety in treating the two features together. 

 Certain it is that when united they contribute more than any 

 thing else to what may be called scenical expression, without 

 which the picturesque beauty we treat of loses much of its 

 value." He treats the arrangement of wood under two heads, 

 that of planting it with a view of concealing defects, and in- 

 troducing beauty into their place, and for the purpose of 

 ornamenting the more open lawns. The former admits of 

 precise rules, but the latter depends chiefly on the eye of the 

 planter, who must necessarily vary his mode of planting as 

 peculiar situations vary. When the only thing needful is to 

 avoid formality, explicit rules rather tend to mislead than to 

 direct. The author's general ideas on the planting of wood 

 are well expressed in the following verses from the first book : 



" Does tlien the song forbid the planter's hand 

 To clothe the distant hills, and veil with woods 

 Their barren summits ? No : but it forbids 

 All poverty of clothing. Rich the robe, 



