LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



535 



llutonr. gents no image but that of unsubstantial tawdriness.'" 

 At the same time, they do not seem to be altogether 

 devoid of picturesque and even wild scenes; for Lord 

 Macartney mentions that the view from one of the im- 

 perial gardens might be compared to that from the ter- 

 race at Lowther Castle, which is altogether vild and 

 romantic, and bounded hy high uncultivated moun- 

 tains, with no other buildings than one or two native 

 cottages. In what degree of estimation such a view 

 is there held, does not, however, appear ; it would be 

 too much to conclude, that, because it existed in that 

 situation, it was therefore considered as eminently beau- 

 tiful or desirable. 



Hi* Lordship's other observations, as well as those of 

 Sir Tieorge Staunton and Mr. Harrow, do justice to the 

 material facts and general character of Sir William 

 Chambers' account. " It is our excellence," observes 

 bis Lordship, " to improve nature ; that of a Chinese 

 gnrdener to conquer her ; his aim is to change every 

 thing from what he found it. A waste he adorns with 

 trees ; a desert he waters with a river or a lake ; and on 

 a smooth flat is raised hills, formed vallies, and placed 

 all sorts of building*." 



The Chinese style most probably originated in that 

 country, as being an arrangement of verdant scenery, 

 the most contrasted to common cultivation. So far this 

 it in just taste, at the only means left them of distin- 



.ng ornamental from useful scenes. The farther 

 desire of obtaining distinction among the distinguish, 

 ed, could only be effected by lavishing expence in mul- 



ng objects, or exaggerating expression. Art among 

 them seems to have attained that last culpable extreme, 

 the object of which is to excite admiration of the skill 

 of the artist : and the limited extent of individual terri- 

 tory, and the damped state of the human mind in that 

 country, teem to account far their approbation of this 



An attentive examination of the great majority of 

 Uiote teat* in which appeared the tir-t indications of a 

 change of taste in this country, and throughout Iluropc, 

 will prove that our object was to copy, or, at least, to 

 imitate, the Chinese manner. Sir William Chambers, 

 (see a passage quoted in the beginning of this article.) 

 Hinchbeld. (T/ieorie de Gartetikuntt, 12mo, Lipsig, 

 ) Watelet, (" Cette nation (the English ) imprunt. . 

 dit on, elle ni. me I'id.-e de ses jardms des Chinois." 

 Euai tur let jardint, Paris, 1774,) say so in express 

 term* : and the numerous books of grottos, root-houses, 

 covered seats, Chinese buildings of various sorts, rock- 

 works, and other objects, published during the first 50 

 yean of the 18th century, put this matter, in our opi- 

 nion, beyond a doubt. The good sense of the country, 

 however, soon disapproved of such expensive and yet 



h, :rr. 



MOM scenery ; and by introdt 



plicity, the English style 

 of that of the Chinese. 



; greater sim- 



ually arose from the ruins 



Forth 

 A. D ITOC. 



SB. 



SECT. V. English Gardening. 



In the concluding part of the last section, we have 

 id our opinion of the origin of the English, or 

 art of laying out ground* ; which, alter the ut- 

 attention which we have been able tocivc the sub- 

 ject, we have been, in some degree, reluctantly coin- 

 ruflrd to adopt ; not only as being at variance ith tint 

 of tone name* of great authority, but as depriving u*, 

 in tome degree, of the merit of entire originality. As 

 in a work of this nature it is proper that our readers 

 tbeold judge for themselves, we shall first state the va- 



rious sentiments of other writers, and next enumerate History. 

 the first eminent practitioners and artists. "TT""""' 



Warton, in his Essay on Pope, and Lord Walpole, in Kn S llsh _ 

 his History of Modern Gardening, agree in referring ^* t( 

 the first ideas to Milton; and the former adds, that 

 the Seasons of Thomson may have had a very con- 

 siderable influence. Eustace is f opinion, that we 

 may, with nearly equal propriety, refer to Tasso's ce- 

 lebrated description of the garden of Armida ; and 

 Boettinger, in his Racemazionen zur Garten Kitnst der 

 Alien, &c. carries us back to the descriptions of the 

 grotto of Calypso, by Homer ; the vale of Tempe, by 

 Julian ; and of Vaucluse, by Petrarch. To these opi- 

 nions may be very properly added a remark of Mr. G. 

 Mason, that " were only classical authorities consult- 

 ed, it would hardly be supposed that even from the 

 earliest ages any considerable variation in taste had ever 

 prevailed." (Essay on Design in Gardening, p. 27.) 

 Mr. Alison seems to consider the modern style as de- 

 rived from our taste for the classic descriptions of 

 the poets of antiquity. " In this view," (alluding 

 to the progress of art from the expression of design 

 to the expression of variety and natural beauty,) he 

 observes, " I cannot help thinking that the modern 

 taste in gardening, (or what Mr. Walpole very justly, 

 and very emphatically, calls the art of creating land- 

 scape,) owes its origin to two circumstances, which 

 may, at first, appear paradoxical, viz. to the acciden- 

 tal circumstance of our taste in natural beauty be- 

 ing founded upon foreign models ; and to the differ- 

 ence or inferiority of the scenery of our own country 

 to that which we were accustomed peculiarly to acf- 

 mire. 1 ' 



The poet Gray ( Life and Letter*, fa. Letter to Mr. 

 Horn, dated 1763.) is of opinion, that "our skill in 

 gardening, or rather laying out grounds, is the only 

 taste we can call our own ; the only proof of original 

 talent in matters of pleasure. This is no small honour 

 to us ; since neither France nor Italy have ever had 

 the least notion of it." 



Mason, the poet, states, in a note to the English Gar. 

 den, that " Bacon was the prophet, Milton the he- 

 rald of modem gardening ; and Addison, Pope, and 

 Kent, the champions of true taste." The efficacy 

 of Bacon's ideas, Mr. G. Mason considers to have 

 been " the introduction of classical landscapes," though 

 this does not very clearly appear from his essay, the ob- 

 ject of which seems to be, to banish certain littlenesses 

 and puerilities, and to create more variety, by intro- 

 ducing enclosures of wild scenery, as well as of culti- 

 vation. The title of champion applied to Addison, al- 

 ludes to his excellent paper in the Spectator, No. 414. 

 " on the causes of the pleasures of the imagination ari- 

 sing from the works of nature, and their superiority over 

 those of art, published in 1712; and when applied to 

 Pope, it refers to his celebrated Guardian, No. 173. pub- 

 lished the following year. Bcettinger, however, affirms 

 that the bishop of Avranches had thrown out similar 

 ideas, previously to the appearance of the Spectator. (See 

 " Huetiana" Pensee 51. " Beautes naturelles prefera- 

 bles aux beautcs de 1'art ;" and P. 72. " Des jarclins a 

 la mode.") 



Mr. G. Mason, the third writer on the modern style, 

 ( I'ope and .Shenstone being the two first,) in reference 

 t i Nr William Temple's observations on the Chinese 

 manner, observes, " little did Sir William Temple 

 imagine, that in not much more than half a century, 

 the Chinese would become the nominal taste of his 

 country; or that so many adventurers in it would do 



