2G4 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



" Improvement too, the idol of the age, 

 Is fed with many a victim. Lo he comes ! 

 The omnipotent magician. Brown, appears ! 

 Down falls the venerable pile, the abode 



Of our forefathers 



He speaks — The lake in front becomes a lawn ; 

 Woods vanish, hills subside, and valleys rise, 

 And streams, as if created for his use 

 Pursue the track of his directing wand." 



CowPER, The Garden, 



Old gardens in every part of England disappeared before 

 the transforming influence of Brown, but luckily before many 

 years had passed a reaction set in, or it is doubtful whether 

 a single garden would have survived. Sir Uvedale Price * 

 described his pleasure on approaching " a venerable 

 castle-like mansion built in the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century," through an avenue of fine old trees. " I was much 

 hurt," he continues, "to learn from the master of the place, 

 that I might take my leave of the avenue and its romantic 

 effects, for that its death-warrant was signed. The 



destruction of so many of these venerable approaches, is a 

 fatal consequence of the present excessive horror of straight 

 lines. ... As to saving a few of the trees, I own I 

 never saw it done with a good effect ; they always pointed 

 out the old line, and the spot was haunted by the ghost of 

 the departed avenue. ... At a gentleman's place in 

 Cheshire, there is an avenue of oaks. Mr. Brown absolutely 

 condemned it, but it now stands a noble monument of the 

 triumph of the natural feelings of the owner over the narrow 

 and systematic ideas of a professed improver." One is 

 thankful that a few people had strength of mind enough to 

 resist the all-poweiful Brown. 



The management of water was considered Brown's strong 

 point. A pleasing example of a sheet of water laid out by 

 hmi is that at Castle Ashby. t As it is now " improved by 

 time " it could not fail to please even the most determined 

 detractors of Brown. But here, too. Brown's hand worked 



* Sir U. Price, On the Picturesque. 



f Belonging to the Marquess of Northampton. 



