112 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



But the taste of England is, we have good reasons for believing, at 

 its maximum ; and the expenditure of the aristocracy is, of late, 

 chiefly devoted to keeping up the existing style of their parks and 

 pleasure-grounds. In this country, it is quite surprising how rapid 

 is the creation of new country residences, and how large is the ag- 

 gregate amount continually expended in the construction of houses 

 and grounds, of a character more or less ornamental. 



Granting all this, it cannot be denied that there are also, in the 

 United States, large sums of money many millions of dollars 

 annually, most unwisely and injudiciously expended in these rural 

 improvements. While we gladly admit that there has been a sur- 

 prising and gratifying advance in taste within the last ten years, we 

 are also forced to confess that there are countless specimens of bad 

 taste, and hundreds of examples where a more agreeable and satis- 

 factory result might have been attained at one-half the cost. 



Is it not, therefore, worth while to inquire a little more definitely 

 what are the obstacles that lie in the way of forming satisfactory, 

 tasteful, and agreeable country residences ? 



The common reply to this question, when directly put in the face 



of any signal example of failure is " Oh, Mr. is a man of no 



taste ! " There is, undoubtedly, often but too much truth in this 

 clean cut at the cesthetic capacities of the unlucky improver. But 

 it by no means follows that it is always true. A man may have 

 taste, and yet if he trusts to his own powers of direction, signally 

 fail in tasteful improvements. 



We should say that two grand errors are the fertile causes of 

 all the failures in the rural improvements of the United States at the 

 present moment. 



The first error lies in supposing that good taste is a natural gift, 

 which springs heaven-born into perfect existence needing no culti- 

 vation or improvement. The second is in supposing that taste alone 

 is sufficient to the production of extensive or complete works in 

 architecture or landscape gardening. 



A lively sensibility to the Beautiful, is a natural faculty, mistaken 

 by more than half the world for good taste itself. But good taste, 

 in the true meaning of the terms, or, more strictly, correct taste, 

 only exists where sensibility to the Beautiful, and good judgment, 



