LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



553 



tereat which the attachment to property creates in men's 

 minds, ' rendering them alive to every trifling recom- 

 mendation belonging to what is their own, while it blinds 

 them to the most prominent beauties in the property 

 of their neighbours." (Stewart's Etsays, p. 4(38.) 



This leads to what, in laying out grounds, is called 

 appropriation, or such an arrangement as shall, cither 

 in reality or appearance, render all, or the greater 

 part of what we aee from a country seat, our own. 

 The simplest way of effecting this, U by shutting out 

 all objects which do not correspond with the idea, by 

 means of walls or plantations. A more refined mi 

 by harmonising the scenery ; by adopting some of the 

 forms, colours, and arrangements in our own territo- 

 ry, which appear in those of our neighbours, as seen 

 from the house, or some particular points of view. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Wheatley, " one property of a riding is 

 to extend the idea of a seat, and appropriate a whole 

 country to the mansion." For this purpose, he requires 

 the road of the riding to be different from common 

 road* in form and preservation, and distinguished ! 

 companhcnenU borrowed from a park or gar den, \v. Mr. 

 Knight strongly objects to appropriation, and ridicules 

 attempts of this sort, by placing the family arms on the 

 inns and public-bouses of the neighbourhood, and on 

 " atone* with distances," as, be says, was recommend- 

 ed by one improver. Girardin also objects to the 

 principle; but Mr. Repton, and, we believe, almost 

 erery other professiou.il mm, finds it a very principal 

 object of attention. Mr. Itepton defines appropriation 

 to be, " that command over the landscape visible from 

 the windows, which denotes it to be private property 

 belonging to the place." " A view into a square or 

 into the parks, may be cheerful and beautiful, but it 

 wants appropriation ; it wants that charm which only 

 belong* to ownership ; the cxcluive right of enjoyment 

 with the power of refusing that others should share our 

 I'he moat romantic |xjt. the most picturesque 

 and the mot* delightful assemblage of na- 

 ture's choicest materials, will not long engage our in- 

 terest without some appropriation ; something we can 

 call our own ; and, if not our own property, at least 

 that may be endeared to a* by calling it our own home." 

 ( FragmenU / Landscape Gardening, p. 206'.) 



In concluding the subject of accidental associations, 

 it is proper to observe, that the objections to their use 

 amply with far lew force to the art of laying out grounds 

 than to architecture, or any of the other elegant arts. 

 For as a country residence is created for the enjoyment 

 of an individual family, that family have undoubtedly 

 right to gratify their peculiar taste* ; but, in so far as 

 their tastM art refined, in so far mutt they expect to 

 obtain the (vrnpaUiy of mrn of general association*. 



The partuuLi .n of these principles to the 



ancient style, U of modern country re- 



sidences as arc bud out with a view to the beauties of 

 design and utility, will be made in the course of treat- 

 ing of the different materials and subjects of garden- 

 ing. 



U. Oflhtii ardcning, coniidertd at an 



i/,' principle* of iheir production. 



TUB chief object of all the imitative arts U the pro- 



duction of natural or universal beauty. Music, poetry, History. 

 and painting, are the principal imitative arts ; to these V *^"Y~"* 111 

 has been lately added landscape gardening, an art which 

 has for its object the production of landscapes by com- 

 binations of the actual materials of nature, as landscape 

 painting has for its object their imitation by combina- 

 tions of colours. Landscape gardening has been said 

 " to realise whatever the fancy of the painter has ima- 

 gined," (Girardin) ; and " to create a scenery more 

 pure, more harmonious, and more expressive, than any 

 that is to be found in nature herself," (Alison.) Such 

 are Mr. Alison's ideas of the powers of this art ; and 

 such appear in some degree, to have been those of Mr. 

 Wheatley and M. Girardin. A more correct idea of its 

 capacities, in our opinion, is suggested by the remark 

 of Lord Walpole, when he represents it as " proud of 

 no other art than that of softening nature's harshnes- 

 ses, and copying her graceful touch." It has also been 

 said, that it is " to poetry and painting, what the re- 

 ality is to the representation," (Girardin.) But experi- 

 ence proves, that the former (the reality) is always ex- 

 ceeded by the latter, both in respect to natural and pic- 

 turesque beauty ; and this reality is supposed to exceed 

 any representation, if it is a scene of gardening, that 

 i, if it M any given variety of ground, rocks, and dis- 

 tance, as the basis to be furnished with wood, water, 

 and buildings ; the rocks shewn, or concealed, as the 

 gardener may wish, or as the genius of the place may 

 require, and every other pui-pose effected, which is in 

 the power of gardening to perform : When all this is 

 done, it will be a scene greatly inferior in beauty, not 

 only to the imitative creation of a painter from the 

 same ground work and materials, but to a similar scene 

 produced by nature. To put this matter in a clear 

 light, let their be a natural landscape, either of medio- 

 crity or of any given beauty, with every circumstance 

 so arranged, as to be alike suitable for both arts ; and 

 let a painter and a gardener, each attempt to copy it ac- 

 cording to their art, with or without permission to im- 

 prove its beauties. Which of the two imitations would 

 be mot beautiful, considered in the abstract, and with- 

 out reference to any selfish or arbitrary association? 

 Decidedly, in our opinion, the production of the painter. 



The great source of the beauty of every verdant 

 landscape is wood ; and so much of the beauty of all 

 woods depends on accidental circumstances, in their 

 progress from the time of planting, till they attain a 

 considerable age, and which circumstances cannot be 

 aid practically to be under the controul of the garden- 

 er, that however high our aim, however we may study 

 the natural effects of time, and however correctly we 

 may imitate them, at the end of all our labours any 

 wood of art will always be far inferior to a wood of 

 nature under the same circumstances. For further il- 

 lustrations we have only to appeal to such painters as 

 have made landscape their particular study, and who 

 certainly must be considered in this case as the best 

 judges. 



To what kind, or degree of beauty then, can land- 

 scape gardening aspire ? To this we answer, that, ab- 

 stracted from all relations of utility and design, it can 

 seldom succeed in producing any thing higher than 

 picturesque beauty, or such a harmonious mixture of 



VOL. xn.'r tni u. 



* remark, that we me thi< term in a general Kiue, eonridcring it M a (pseies of the genus leauly, contain. 

 . amamallktm rarwtic*. ** think, can hanHy Be undrncood and reli*hed by well u hare not had some practice in 

 . i aeraerr. which, in troth, may be laid to open a new WUNC of bcau'y to the itn.gir ation, independently of its effect in 

 r'trinh tai natsnl magraMMs f tcaserr. 



