202 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



coachbuilder ; with the assistance of friends he went to 

 Italy, and studied painting. He, however, never attained 

 any good results in that art, but succeeded better as an 

 architect, and designed temples and ruins for gardens. 

 By the help of his patron, Lord Burlington, he was noticed 

 by the Queen, and made Architect and then Painter to the 

 Crown. He was looked up to by all the designers who 

 followed, as the originator of the idea, and founder of the 

 School of Landscape Gardening. At one time, his wish to 

 follow Nature, carried him so far that he planted dead trees 

 in Kensington Garden "to give a greater air of truth to the 

 scene." But Walpole says " he was soon laughed out of this 

 excess." Philip Southcote appears to have been one of the 

 tirst of those in whom Kent's " Elysian scenes excited the idea 

 of improving their own domains/' and " the elegance of Wooburn 

 Farm (designed by him) was so conspicuous, that even its 

 faults were imposing.""^ Pain's-hill, in Surrey, begun about 

 the same time by Charles Hamilton, was " a perfect example 

 of this mode." t Hagley, laid out by Lord Lyttleton, was 

 another garden, or " ferme ornee " in the same style, 

 frequently referred to by contemporary writers, who praised 

 "the new modelling of the shades and unfettering of the 

 the rills." % In spite of the admiration lavished by many 

 on this place, Gilpin § remarks that although "there are 

 certainly many beautiful views in these extensive gardens, 

 yet we can easily conceive the same variety of ground .... 

 so combined as to produce a much nobler whole." Hagley, 

 in Worcestershire, was only a short distance from the 

 Leasowes, already referred to, which was perhaps the most 

 admired garden of this type. Goldsmith and others who 

 had seen the place during the life-time of its poet-possessor, 



* George Mason, Essay on Design in Gardening. Wooburn Farm, 

 near Chertsey, no longer existed in 1829. — G. W. Johnson, Hist, Eng. 

 Ga I'd en i'lg. 



f Walpole. 



J George Mason. 



§ Observations on Picturesque Beauty 'uade in 1772, Particularly the 

 Mountains and Lakes. By Wm. Gilpin. 



