LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



551 



, Object! of 



Ancient 



MMtra 



, " Which teaches wealth and pride, 



> I low to obtain their with the world's applause." 



MASOW. 



The ancient authors on architecture and gardening, 

 have nrcly attempted to lay do\. n any general princi- 

 ples of composition. Vitruvius hints obscurely, that 

 the different parts of buildings, should bear some pro- 

 portion among themselves, like that which subsists 

 between the different members of the human body ; 

 that the quantities constituting the magnitudes of tem- 

 ples, should have certain ratios to one another, and 

 he lays down canons for the individual proportions, and 

 collective arrangement of the columns of the different 

 orders. These however, are not principles, but mecha- 

 nical rules formed on very limited associations. The 

 same remarks will apply to the directions respecting the 

 walk*, walls, hedge*, and borders of the ancient style, 

 laid down by D'Argenville, Clarici, and Switzer. It is 

 in the writings of modern authors therefore, and chiefly 

 from the enlightened investigations of Mr. Alison, that 

 we are to draw our information as to the principles by 

 whuh the artiiti of the ancient style were instinctively 

 guided in their productions. 



Wuh respect to the moiimt style, considered as in- 

 cluding what belongs to the conveniencies of a country 

 residence, as well as the art of creating landscapes. 

 Pope has included the principles under, 1. The study 

 and display of natural beauties 2. The concealment 

 of defect* ; and, 3. Never to lose light of common sense. 



\\ heat ley concurs in these principles, stating the bu- 

 siness of a gardener to be " to select and to apply what- 

 ever is great, elegant, or characteristic" in the scenery 

 of nature or art ; " to discover and to shew all the ad- 

 vantagr* of the place upon which he is employed ; to 

 supply its defects, to correct its faults, and to improve 

 iu Iwauties." Mr. Hepton, whose works on landscape 

 gardening bear on the title page, " written with a view 

 to establish fixed principles in these art*," enumerate* 

 congrnity, utility, order, symmetry, scale, projxirtion, 

 and appropriation, " if,'' as he observes in one place, 

 " there are any principles." Mr. G. Mason places the se- 

 cret of the art in the " nice distinction between contrast 

 and incongruity ," Maon, the poet, invokes " simplici- 

 ty," probably intruding that this beauty should distin- 

 guith the I-'ngliah from the Chinese style; simplicity is 

 also the ruling principle of Lord Kaines ; Girardin in- 

 cludes every beauty under " truth and nature," and 

 every rule ' under the unity of the whole, and the con- 

 nection of the part* ;" and Sbenstone states "landscape, 

 or pictumque gardening," to ' consist in pleasing the 

 imagination by scenes of grandeur, beauty, and variety. 

 nience merely ha* no share here, any further than 

 a* it please* the imagination." Congruity and the 

 principles of painting, are those of Mr. Price and of 

 Mr. Knight From these different theories, as well as 

 from the general object* or end of gardening, there ap- 

 pear to be two principle* which enter into its composi- 

 tion, those which regard it as a mixed art, or an art of 

 design, and which are called the principles of relative 

 beauty ; and those which regard it as an imitative art, 

 and are called the principles of natural or universal 

 beauty. The ancient or geometric gardening, is guid- 

 ed wholly by the former principles ; landscape gar- 

 dening, as an imitative art, wholly by the Utter; but a* 

 the art of forming a country residence, its arrangements 



l influenced by both principles. In conformity with 

 1 idea*, and with our plan of including both styles 

 r the generic term gardening, we shall first consi. 



der its principles as an inventive or mixed, and second- Objects ri 

 ly, as an imitative art. Ganlenn/. 



SECT. I. Of the Beauties of Gardening as an inventive 

 and mixed art, and of the principles oj their Produc* 

 tim. 



Works of art, Mr. Alison observes, may be consider- 

 ed, either in relation to their design or intention to 

 the nature of their construction for the intended pur- 

 poseor to the nature of the end they are destined to 

 serve ; and their beauty accordingly will depend, ei- 

 ther upon the excellence or wisdom of the design, the 

 fitness or propriety of the construction, or the utility of 

 the end. The considerations of design, of jilness, and 

 of utility, therefore, may be considered as the three 

 great sources of the beauties of works of inventive art. 

 They have been called relative lieauties, in opposition 

 to those of native and imitative art, which are hence 

 denominated natural or independent beauties. There is 

 a third source of beauty common both to arts of inven- 

 tion and imitation, which is that of accidental beauty, 

 or such as is produced by local, arbitrary, or tempora- 

 ry associations. The beauties of objects, whether na- 

 tural, relative, or. accidental, are conveyed to the senses 

 by the different qualities of matter, sounds, colours, 

 smells, forms, and motion ; but form is the grand cha- 

 racteristic of matter, and constitutes in a great degree 

 it* essence to our senses. In our remarks, therefore, on 

 the beauties of inventive art, we shall chiefly consider 

 design, fitness, and utility, in regard to form. 



The expression of design is displayed by such forms Design, 

 and dispositions, as shall at once point out that they 

 are works of art. Thus regularity and uniformity are 

 recognised in the rudest works of man, and point out 

 his employment of art and expence in their construc- 

 tion. I lence the lines, surfaces, and forms of geome- 

 tric gardening should be different, and in some degree 

 opposed to those of general nature. Irregular surfaces, 

 or forms, may be equally useful, alike works of 

 art, and, considered with reference to other beauties, 

 may be more agreeable than such as are regular; but, 

 if too prevalent, they might be mistaken for the pro- 

 duction of nature, in which case they would lose the 

 Iwauty of design ; " but forms perfectly regular, and 

 divisions completely uniform, immediately excite the 

 belief of design, and, with this belief, nil the admiration 

 which follows die employment of skill and expence." 

 (round in level or regular slopes, or in hills or hollows 

 of symmetrical shapes, woods of right lined boundaries ; 

 trees, and especially such as are foreign to the soil, 

 planted equidistant! y in masses, in quincunx, or in 

 straight rows ; water in architectural basins, regular 

 canals, or fountains ; walks, and woods, of uniform 

 width and perfectly straight, straight walls and 

 hedges, are easily distinguished from nature's ma- 

 nagement of these materials, and are highly expressive 

 of the hand of man. 



Another reason why regular forms are satisfactory, 

 Mr. Stewart ( Philosophical Essays, 238.) derives from, 

 the principle of a sufficient reason, adopted by Leib- 

 nitz, " What' is it, that in any thing which is merely 

 ornamental, and which at the same time does not pro- 

 fess to be an imitation of nature, renders irregular forms 

 displeasing ? Is it not, at least in part, that irregula- 

 rities are infinite ; and that no circumstance can be 

 imagined which should have decided the choice of the 

 arti-t in favour of that particular figure which he has 

 selected ? The variety of regular figures (it must be 



