14 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND i 



The park was divided by a ravine, with a 

 stream running along the bottom. Accordingly, 

 " the beautiful and natural parts of the ravine 

 were picked out and made the most of, whilst, 

 in order to convert the parts into a whole, the 

 sides were in places levelled down, and the 

 stream covered," — a somewhat scurvy treatment 

 of nature by the landscape gardener. This 

 is all very well, but what becomes of nature : 

 As Sir Uvedale Price said of Brown and 

 his clumps of trees, '' While Mr. Brown 

 was removing old pieces of formality, he was 

 establishing new ones of a more extensive 

 and mischievous consequence." The claims of 

 landscape gardening to be the true " natural 

 style " will not bear investigation. When 

 Addison and Pope sneered at the formal 

 garden and praised " the amiable simplicity 

 of unadorned nature," the logical conclusion 

 would have been to condemn the garden 

 altogether, and to let the house, if a house was 

 to be allowed at all, rise from the heart of the 

 thicket, or sheer from the rough hillside. It 

 is hard to see how there is less interference with 

 nature in an untidy grotto of shells and rocks 

 than in a comfortable red-brick gazebo, and the 

 entire extent of masonry used by Kent in his 

 temples and grottoes at Stowe, must have been 

 at least equal to the amount used by Le Notre 

 at Sceaux or Chantilly. To suppose that love 

 of nature is shown by trying to produce the 



