LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



547 



HUtory. The first are of limited extent, but the latter, near \Var- 



"""Y"^ saw, are very extensive, and were laid out rim-fly from 

 the designs of Princess Czartoryska. The gardens of 

 General Benningscn near \Vilna, were in a mixed style, 

 and rich in botany, before they were destroyed by the 

 retreat of the French army in 1812. Those of Colo- 

 nel I-achanitzki at Poniemonia, on the banks of the 

 ien at Grodno, are not extensive, but contain more 

 romantic and picturesque scenery than any we have 

 seen in Poland. 



Our remark*, as to the present state of architecture 

 and domestic arrangements of Russia, will nearly ap- 

 ply to Poland ; but the am ir jtatrite, from superior 

 education and recent intercourse with every country 

 in Kurope, is of a much more active and intelligent 

 nature in the latter country, and will, we are per- 

 suaded, within a moderate period, place Poland on a 

 level with any of the continental kingdoms more es- 

 pecially if her individuality shall be preserved. 



jreisfc The royal gardens at the Haga, near Stockholm, 



form the earliest and the chief example of the Km-ii-li 

 style in Sweden. They were begun by Guatavus III. 

 with the assistance of Masretier, a Swedish artist, and 

 subsequently varied and extended, so that they now pre- 

 sent a mixture of picturesque, with some formal beau- 

 ty. They are surrounded and interspersed with rocks, 

 covered with Scotch and spruce firs, and abound in 

 winding walks, Chinese, and other building*. There 

 are some confined spots laid out in t! 

 chiefly by British merchants, in the neighbourhoo I of 

 Gottenburg, as there are also near Christiunsaiul in 

 i ly ; but it may be remarked, that th:- style is 

 not likely to be generally adopted in either country, 

 because they already possess much greater beauties of 

 the same kind which it i> our aim to create, and with 

 which those erected would not bear a comparison. 



camaik. A distinguished example of the English -tyle exisU 

 in l)enm.trk, at Dronningnard, the residence of an emi- 

 nent Danith merchant, DeConninck, about sixteen mile* 

 from Copenhagen. The ground* are situated on an ex- 

 tensive declivity, which descends to a natural lake of 

 great extent, whose circuitous shore* are verged with 

 rich woody scenery and country houses. The soil here 

 approaches more to a loam than is general on the con- 

 tinent, the turf is, therefore, happily of a deep tone of 

 green, and close texture. The oak and beech abound 

 in thr-<- grounds, as well as firs, and a number of exo- 

 tics. Buildings are not too frequent ; but there are 

 several, ami among them a hermitage, to which it is 

 Mated one of the family actually retired, on occasion of 

 a matrimonial disappointment, and lived there for se- 

 veral years, till called forth by some military arrange- 

 ment*. There are numbers of small spots round C'o- 

 nmh*rn of considerable beauty, in which something 

 of the English style has been imitated ; but in none of 

 the gardens of the court has it been atowedly introduced. 



rm and are not aware that the English style has been 



^w^L introduced into Spain, unless on a very small sc.ile, in 

 the neighbourhood of Seville, or other maritime towns, 

 by the British rtsidfnll, though Mr. (teuton mentions 

 one instance in which he was called on to give a de- 

 sign in the modern style, for a very small spot near 

 Lisbon. These are not countries for change of ideas, 

 or refinement of taste. 



ujj. -v little more has been done in Italy than in 



Spain and Portugal as to English gardening, and in a 

 great measure from the same cnu-t-s the general stag- 

 nation of mind, and the abundance of picturesque 

 scenery. The villa Borgheae, is universally allowed 



to be the first of Roman villas. " The gardens," Mr. History. 

 Eustace informs us, " are laid out with some regard, 1 *""Y~"" rf ' 

 both for the new and for the old system ; for though 

 symmetry prevails in general, and long alleys appear 

 intersecting each other, lined with statues and refresh- 

 ed by cascades, yet here and there a winding path al- 

 lures you into a wilderness formed of plants, abandon- 

 ed to their native luxuriancy, and watered by stream- 

 lets murmuring through their own artless channels." 

 Of Italian gardens in general, the same anther observes, 

 " howsoever they may differ in extent and magnifi- 

 cence, their principal features are nearly the same ; 

 the same with regard to artificial ornaments, as well as 

 natural graces. Some ancient remains are to be found 

 in all, and several in most, and they are all adorned 

 with the same evergreens, and present upon a greater 

 or less scale the same Italian and ancient scenery. 

 They are in general, it is true, much neglected, but 

 for that reason the more rural. The plants, now aban- 

 doned to their native forms, cover the walks with a 

 luxuriant shade, break the long straight vistas by their 

 fantastic branches, and turn the alleys and quincunxes 

 into devious paths and tangled thickets." (Classical 

 Tour, vol. i. ch.-18.) 



The modern Asiatic gardens appear, from the ac- Modem 

 counts of travellers, to be exactly the same a> described s'y'e in 

 in the earliest accounts of gardening in the east. The OTllet CUUB ' 

 gardens in Africa partake of the Turkish manner, which tnes " 

 has nothing in it differing materially from the Asiatic. 

 Those of the grand Sultan, remain the same as in Lady 

 Montague's tune. 



Small specimens of the English style, we believe, are 

 to be found near almost every great commercial city m 

 the world ; and undoubtedly in the chief towns of the 

 British colonies. The governor's gardens at Calcutta 

 are highly spoken of, as are others in Madras, at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and in Jamaica ; and >li^lit efforts 

 have been made in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janei- 

 ro, and Buenos Ayres. In North America, the late 

 General Washington's Feme Ornce at Vermont, was 

 perhaps the most elegant country residence in that part 

 of the world ; but there are occasional English gardens 

 to be seen near New York, Baltimore, and other elder 

 cities; and Montesquieu mention- M vend country re- 

 sidences in the interior, in which some attention to or- 

 nament was not deemed incompatible with agricultural 

 improvement. 



SECT. VI. Remarks on the different Styles. 



The common practice of almost every author who has Ren""* 5 nn 

 written on the modern style, is to condemn indiscrimi- the different 

 nutely every other taste as unnatural and absurd. If by flj es " 

 unnatural, an allusion is made to the verdant scenery of 

 uncultivated nature, we allow that this is the ca>e ; but 

 we would ask, if, for that reason, it follows, that though 

 now absurd, these gardens were not as natural and rea- 

 sonable in their day, as any of the manners and cus- 

 toms of these times ? Gardening, as a liberal art, is des- 

 tined to create scenes, In which both beauty and use are 

 combined : admitting, therefore, that both styles are 

 alike convenient, to say that the modern only is beau- 

 tiful, is to say that there is only one sort of beauty 

 .11 l;i|>ted to gardening; or that there is no beauty but 

 that of the pictureMjue ; or that all former ages, and 

 every other country, is in a state of barbarism with re- 

 spect to this art. It we take the term natural in a more 

 extensive sense, and apply it to the climate, situation, 

 condition, and manners of a people ; and if we allow 

 these to be natural, why may not their gardening be na- 



