496 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



two characters to support, and may be considered as the con- 

 necting thread between the regularity of the house and the 

 freedom of the natural scene. These two characters it should 

 ever keep in view. 



Under this regulation the business of the embellished 

 scene is to make everything convenient and comfortable 

 around the house ; to remove offensive objects, and to add a 

 pleasing foreground to the distance. If there be no distance, 

 it must depend the more on its own beauties. But still, in 

 every circumstance, it must observe its double character, and 

 discover as much of the simplicity of nature as is consistent 

 with its artificial alliance. If the scene be large, it throws 

 off art by degrees, the more it recedes from the mansion and 

 approaches the country. 



Though the embellished scene is not sufficiently marked 

 with the bold, free characters of nature to be purely pictur- 

 esque, it is still, under proper regulations, a very beautiful 

 species of landscape. The author calls the embellished scene 

 one of the peculiar features of English landscape ; but he 

 laments that this beautiful mode of composition is oftener 

 aimed at than attained. Its double alliance with art and na- 

 ture is rarely observed with perfect impartiality. Ambitious 

 ornaments generally take the lead, and nature is left behind. 

 Where little improprieties offend, they are readily passed 

 over ; but where the offence against nature becomes capital, 

 it is not easy to repress indignation. 



The writer classes also the ruins of abbeys among the 

 peculiarities of English landscape. Ruins are commonly 

 divided into two kinds, castles and abbeys. The feudal sys- 

 tem, which lasted long in England, raised numerous castles 

 in every part. Many of these buildings, now fallen into 

 decay, remain objects of great beauty. If in the ruins of 

 castles other countries compare with England, few can equal 

 it in the remains of abbeys, because in that country they are 

 ruins, while in Popish countries they are entire and inhabited. 

 Abbeys formerly abounded so much in England that a de- 

 licious valley could scarcely be found, in which one of them 

 was not stationed. The very sites of these ancient edifices 



