CHAPTER XT. 



" Shade above shade, a woody theatre 



Of stateliest view " 



Milton, Paradise Lost. 



" Shower every beauty, every fragrance shower, 

 Herbs, flowers and fruits ; ..." 



Thomson, Seasons. 



'T^HE gardeners who followed London and Wise as designers, 

 as well as cultivators and planters, were Stephen Switzer, 

 and after him Bridgeman. These men were busy at a time 

 when formal gardening was on the wane. It was in Queen ' 

 Anne's time that Addison and Pope first ridiculed the old style, 

 and sought to bring in the fashion of " copying Nature." But 

 the reaction and destruction of old gardens did not take place 

 till later ; when the theories they advanced had had time to 

 spread. There is no lack of views and designs of gardens 

 during this period. They are to be found in County Histories 

 such as Plot's Staffordshire, Atkyns^ Gloucester, and Dugdale's 

 Warwickshire ; also Beeverell, " Les Delices de la Grande 

 Bretagne et de I'lrlande," published at Leyden in 1707, in 

 Britannia lUustrata, 1709, with a large series of views by 

 Kip, and in other similar works. If the authors had foreseen 

 the annihilation that was to befall so many gardens, they could 

 hardly have more carefully preserved their designs. But these 

 pictures are mostly taken from some imaginary point, and give 

 a bird's-eye view of house, garden, and surrounding landscape, 

 in a conventional plan, regardless of perspective. Faithful 



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