LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



549 



Hittorv. 



On the in- 



em Kjt 

 is* >"- 



u well as the gardens within and without its walls, 

 which she particularly desired. The air in that ele- 

 vated region would be more cool than below ; the 

 noise and bustle of the city would cease to be offensive ; 

 the whole would be more exposed to breezes and winds ; 

 and we cannot help fancying, that so much enjoy- 

 ment in so singular and elevated a situation, would pro- 

 duce in the mind an impression of sublimity. But a 

 faint idea of these gardens will be excited, by imagining 

 the <( <( .N>merset House crowned with a por- 



tion of Kt: - ; i'^*u:i gardens; or of the summer garden 

 of Peter- M.-L'II placed over the Kremlin in Moscow. 



How atxl with what propriety the eastern style came 

 afterwanls to be adopted in Greece, Italy, France, and 

 mftbt Kxc- finally in I!:,^i. ml. is nurnext inquiry. The principle or 

 instinct of imitation, would be the tir~t c:;ii-e why the 

 more distant nation--, whether colonies from the east, or 

 returning travellers or conquerors, adopted this parent 

 style. This is so obvious, as to require no comment be- 

 yond what will be furni-hed by individual inquiry into 

 our earliest taste*, habits, and predilections in dress, 

 amusement?, furniture, and other matters of common 

 t principle is that of use or fitness, which 

 would vary in application, proportionally to the distance 

 nd different circumstance! of the imitating country. 

 Thu it would not exactly apply in Greece or Italy, where 

 the clioute was more temperate, active exercise more 

 congenial, and the habit- of the wealthy for .1 long time 

 t li-ast comparatively frugal. Add tu this, th.it verdant 

 land-capes, shade, breeze;-, rills, waterfalls, and lakes, 

 with their accompaniments of odours, murmurs, sing- 

 i.irds, reflections of object*, were more liberally dis- 

 tributed over the face of general nature. The more ac- 

 . haracter of nun in such countries, would in time 

 also appropriate to their use from this natural abun- 

 dance, a greater variety of fruits and legumes. 



* little of the private gardening of the 

 Greeks, but a very slight attention to this difference of 

 f jftMnttt""**, will enable us to account for the charac- 

 ter assumed by the eastern style under the ancient Ro- 

 mans. The necessarily different culture required for 

 perfecting fruit* and culinary vegetables would give 

 rise to the orchard and kitchen garden. This would 

 simplify the objects of the ornamental garden, which 

 would thus exhibit less a collection of natural beauties, 

 than the display of art, the convenience of taking exer- 

 here a pleasure rather than a fatigue, and the gra- 

 c/ebade,e 



'bade, cool hreeses, and aromatic odours. 

 A prospect of the surrounding country was desired, be- 

 came it was beautiful ; and where, from various circum- 

 stances, it was interrupted by the garden or its bounda- 

 ry fence, mounds or hillt of earth were raised, and in 

 boat prospect-towers appended to the houses. Greater 

 extent would be re^ more athletic recreation*. 



and would be indulged in also by the wealth and pride 

 of the owner far obvious reasons. Abridgement of la- 

 bour would suggest the use of the sheen, rather than 

 the mere tardy pruning knife in thickening a row of 

 trees. A row of low trees so thickened, would suggest 

 the idea of a row of dipt shrubs. Hence at first hedges ; 

 and subsequently, when art and expence had exhausted 

 every beauty, and when the taste had become tired of 

 repetition, verdant sculpture would be invented, as af- 

 fording novel, c-uriom, and fantastic beauty, bordering, 

 es do all extremes, upon absurdity. A more extended 

 and absolute appropriation of territory, than what we 

 may suppose to have taken place in the comparatively 

 sterile country of the east, would lead to agricultural 

 pursuits, and these again would give rise to the various 



arrangements of a Roman country residence which we 

 know to have existed, and which it would be superflu- 

 ous to describe. Various other circumstances might be 

 added ; but enough has been stated to shew, that the 

 gardening of the Romans was perfectly natural to them, 

 under the circumstances in which they were placed ; 

 it suited their wants, and produced scenes, which 

 they found to be beautiful, and was therefore in the 

 justest taste. To have imitated the scenery of nature, 

 or studied picturesque beauty in a garden, would 

 have been merely adding a drop to the ocean of beau- 

 ties which surrounded them. Expence incurred for 

 this purpose could never have procured applause to tin- 

 owner, since the more like nature the production, the 

 less would it excite notice. All that was left for man to 

 do, therefore, was to create those beauties of art, conve- 

 nience and magnificence, which mark out his dwell- 

 ing place, and gratify his pride and taste by their 

 contrast with surrounding nature. 



The gardening of the Romans was copied in France 

 and Britain, with little variations, beyond those dictat- 

 ed by necessity and the difference of climate. It was 

 found to be perfectly beautiful and agreeable; and 

 would have continued to prevail, had Britain continued 

 in similar circumstances to those in which she was in at 

 the time of its introduction. But such lias been the 

 progress of improvement in this country, that the ge- 

 neral face of nature became as it were an ancient gar- 

 den, and every estate was lined out, bounded, and sub- 

 divided, by stripes of wood, rows of trees, canals, ponds, 

 walls, and hedges. The credit or distinction to be ob- 

 tained here, by continuing to employ the ancient style, 

 could be no greater than what the Romans would have 

 obtained by imitating nature. In their case all the 

 country was one scene of uncultivated, in ours it was 

 one scene of cultivated, beauty. In this state of things 

 the modern style was adopted, not solely from a wish to 

 imitate the gardening of the Chinese, or a high degree 

 nt' r< Hutment in taste, but from the steady operation 

 of the *nme motives which produced and continued the 

 ancient style a desire of distinction. The Chinese 

 style, if introduced, would never have become purified, 

 or ended in our simple style, had England remained 

 an open country like France or Italy, or a thickly 

 wooded one like Poland or America. On this principle 

 it may be affirmed, that the English style cannot please 

 in these countries, otherwise than from its novelty, or as 

 giving rise to certain associations with the people, whose 

 name it bears. What delight or distinction can be pro- 

 duced by the English style in Poland, for example, where 

 the whole country is one forest, and the cultivated 

 spots only so many open glades, with the most irregu- 

 lar and picturesque boundaries? But let a proprietor 

 there dispose of the scenery around his residence in the 

 Roman or French manner ; let him display a fruit or 

 kitchen garden, bounded by high stone walls ; a farm 

 subdivided by clipped hedges and ditches, and a plea- 

 sure ground of avenues, stars, circles, fountains, statues, 

 temples, and prospect towers, and he will gratify every 

 spectator. The view of so much art, industry, and mag- 

 nificence, amid so much wild and rude scenery, awake 

 so many social ideas of comfort and happiness, and so 

 much admiration at the wealth and skill employed, that 

 a mind of the greatest refinement, and the justest taste, 

 would feel the highest sensation of pleasure, and ap- 

 prove as much of such a country residence in the wilds 

 of Poland or America, as he would of the most natural 

 and picturesque residence of England, amid its highly 

 artificial scenery. 



History. 



