LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



877 



1228. One of Langley's " Designs for gardens that lye irregularly to the Grand House. 



for the laying out of :i s| 

 paiiying plan of SIm : 

 (Fig. 1230), and th. 

 (Fig. 1231), show how i.i 

 from those of LangU y, 

 short of the Ideals of the pr 



^ -:iiden. The accora- 

 i' II. the Leasowes 

 I 1,'linipse therein 

 . j.i i.iiis were removed 

 1 much they may fall 

 day. A full descrip- 



tion has been left us of the Leasowes. Here is a glir 

 "Passing through a small gate at the bottom of the fine 

 swelling lawn that surrounds the house, you enter upon 

 a winding path, with a piece of water on your right. 

 The path and water, over-shadowed with trees that grow 

 upon the slopes of this narrow dingle, render the scene 

 at once cool, gloomy, solemn, and sequestered ; and forms 

 so striking a contraste to the lively scene you have just 

 left, that you seem all on a sudden landed in a subter- 

 raneous liiud of region. Winding forward down the val- 

 ley, you pass beside a small root-house, where on a tablet 

 are these lines: 



cool grot, and mossy cell, 

 I fays and faeries dwell; 

 ■i-ly seen by mortal eye. 



The garden-art of 1 1 1 ■ 

 of architecture. Tlic ^n^ 

 particularly amongst Kns 



l:n-gely a corollary 

 I tlie present time, 

 king peoples, exists 

 ay that the old-time 

 garden-art is unlovely, or that it contradicts the canons 

 of good taste. Tlie two belong to different categories 

 of aesthetic feeling, and the mere fact that both of them 

 use plant-subjects does not make them comparable. 

 Garden-art, like painting or music or literature, develops 

 along racial or national lines. The Latins and their 

 descendants have liked the formal and conventional 

 gardens ; and since these gardens express the personal 

 and national emotions, they need no apology, notwith- 

 standing the fact they are condemned by many land- 

 scape gardeners. 



A different type of ciidt-iivor is tliat which attempts to 

 interpret nature in thi' makin- .if laii.ls.-apes. The ideal 

 landscape garden, likr (hr i.li :.l lamlscape painting, 

 expresses oremphasizis s,,iin- sIiil;].- tljoughtor feeling. 

 Its expression may be gay, buld. retired, quiet, florid; 

 but if it is natural, its expression will conform to the 

 place and the purpose, and the expressions are not mat- 

 ters of rule. It should be a picture, not a collection of 



interesting objects. Mere planting and grading do not 

 make a landscape garden: in fact, they often spoil it. 

 It is not enough to plant : the plants must be in the 

 right place. A yard or a lawn with bushes or flower- 

 beds scattered over it may be interesting as a mere 

 garden, but it is not a landscape garden. The Italian 

 gardens were hardly landscape gardens. A real landscape 

 garden has open breadth, space, atmosphere. It usually 

 has an open center with mass-planted sides, and vistas 

 to the off scape. Incidentally, it may be ornamented; 

 yet many persons even confound ornamental garden- 

 ing with Landscape Gardening : it would be as proper 

 to confound house-painting with architecture. Figs. 

 1227 and 1232 show the contrasts of a mere garden and 

 a landscape garden. Compare Plates XIV and XV. 



It will be seen from the above that the term Land- 

 scape Gardening precisely expresses the art of mak- 

 ing a garden or tame area which sliall be a landscape 

 or picture. Yet, amongst the profession, the term land- 

 scape architecture is preferred. This term borrows the 

 dignity of architecture, and is useful in a professional 

 way. The writer much prefers the term Landscape 

 Gardening ; but it is apparent that the term landscape 

 architecture is growing in favor with the profession, and 

 there is little use in debating over a mere term. Properly 

 speaking, the terms Landscape Gardening and landscape 

 architecture are not synonymous, although in practice 

 they are so used. It is not every place which is adapted 

 to the making of a landscape picture. Formal gardens 

 are often more to be desired than natural ones. They 

 may conform to the principles of art, but it is the 

 art of formal gardens, not of natural gardens. Too 

 often have formal gardens been judged from the view- 

 point of the natural or landscape garden, and hence 

 confusion has arisen. There is now a slow but whole- 

 some reaction against the too exchisive use of the true 

 landscape garden. In practice, however, one cannot 

 separate the two, so that one practitioner is, or should 

 be, both landscape gardi-ner and landscape architect. 

 So it comes that ttp- iiim ImmI - .iji.' :ir-liit,rtiir. ^t.inds 

 for the whole art ■ ' - i- ' I i '■ i-in is 



therefore broadrr : : i m :. -t:the 



word "architect " -I ;,,,; _.i,.; i-cof 



contriver OT plaiiin ,. iAiUri ilum iii it,- .^pn iliu une of 

 builder. It is the uaturc-likc landscape garden, rather 

 than the formalesque garden, which the writer has in 

 mind in the advice which is given in this article. The 



