THE "LANDSCAPE-GARDEN" 101 



steps, and as many walks and terrasses ; and so 

 many iron gates, that we recollect those ancient 

 romances in which every entrance was guarded by 

 nymphs or dragons. At Lady Orford's, at Piddletown, 

 in Dorsetshire, there was, when my brother married, 

 a double enclosure of thirteen gardens, each, I sup- 

 pose, not a hundred yards square, with an enfilade of 

 correspondent gates ; and before you arrived at these, 

 you passed a narrow gut between two terrasses that 

 rose above your head, and which were crowned by a 

 line of pyramidal yews. A bowling-green was all 

 the lawn admitted in those times, a circular lake the 

 extent of magnificence." 



Such an air of truth and soberness pervades Wai- 

 pole's narrative, and to so absurd an extent has for- 

 mality been manifestly carried under the auspices of 

 Loudon and Wise, who had stocked our gardens with 

 " giants, animals, monsters, coats of arms, mottoes in 

 yew, box, and holly," that we are almost persuaded 

 to be Vandals. " The compass and square, were of 

 more use in plantations than the nursery-man. The 

 measured walk, the quincunx, and the etoile imposed 

 their unsatisfying sameness. . . . Trees were 

 headed, and their sides pared away ; many French 

 groves seem green chests set upon poles. Seats 

 of marble, arbours, and summer-houses, terminated 

 every vista." It is all very well for Temple to re- 

 commend the regular form of garden. " I should 

 hardly advise any of these attempts " cited by W T al- 

 pole, " in the form of gardens among us ; they are 

 adventures of too hard achievement for any common 



