DAWN OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 555 



" An Essay towards a General History of Feudal Property 

 in Great Britain." This John Dalrymple was a Scotch 

 advocate, and (I suppose subsequent to the writing of this 

 essay) according to Lowndes, Sir John Dalrymple, and if 

 the compiler of a book catalogue in my possession is to be 

 trusted, still later on became Earl of Stair. 



I do not find this essay recorded in any of the 

 biographical manuals which I possess. The MS. was pro- 

 cured from Mr Dalrymple for Mr Shenstone through the 

 medium of Mr Dodsley about the year 1760, and became 

 the property of Mr Bolton Corney in 1815. The last-named 

 gentleman edited and published it in 1823, but only a few 

 copies were printed. I may remark en passant I have 

 glanced cursorily through Shenstone's published letters, 

 but do not find any allusion to this pamphlet, although 

 Mr Dodsley's name frequently occurs in them. 



It will, I think, be generally admitted that this essay 

 possesses much interest, (i) because it was written in the 

 dawn of landscape gardening, before the great con- 

 troversy on that art nearly a century ago, which has 

 settled down into the general adoption of the present style 

 of English landscape gardening ; and (2) because it is 

 probable that Shenstone (whose beautiful garden, or 

 rather ferme ornce, "The Leasowes" was still talked about 

 in my early days) derived some of his inspiration from 

 this source. Shenstone, the author of " Unconnected 

 thoughts on Gardening," was a practical landscape gar- 

 dener as well as a poet of that age, and of his estate, 

 " The Leasowes," Johnson, in the " History of Gar- 

 dening," remarks, " when it came to Mr Shenstone's hands 

 it was a mere grazing farm, but he left it a perfect fairy- 

 land." About the time of which I am writing (1760) 

 Bridgeman and Kent had broken in upon the dull 

 uniformity of the existing style of laying out grounds, and 

 they are the only landscape gardeners mentioned (the 

 latter approvingly) by Dalrymple. 



This brings me to the consideration of the essay itself, 



