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sufficient effect. And had not these great masters actually 

 executed what Kent's example first inspired, them with, the 

 design of executing, would the subsequent writers on gar- 

 dening have been enabled to collect materials for precepts, 

 or stores for their imaginations? Mr. Price acknowledges 

 himself an admirer of the water-scene at Blenheim. Would 

 it ever have appeared in its present shape, if no Kent had 

 previously abolished the stiffness of canals ! If this original 

 artist had barely rescued the liquid element from the con- 

 straint of right lines and angles, that service alone would 

 have given him an indubitable claim to the respect of pos- 

 terity." The Rev. Mr. Coventry, in his admirable exposure 

 of the grotesque absurdities in gardening, (being No. 15 of 

 the World) thus speaks of Kent: "The great Kent at 

 length appeared in behalf of nature, declared war against 

 the taste in fashion, and laid the axe to the root of artificial 

 evergreens. Gardens were no longer filled with yews in the 

 shape of giants, Noah's ark cut in holly, St. George and the 

 Dragon in box, cypress lovers, laurustine bears, and all that 

 race of root-born monsters which flourished so long, and 

 looked so tremendous round the edges of every grass-plat. 

 The great master above mentioned, truly the disciple of na- 

 ture, imitated her in the agreeable wildness and beautiful 

 irregularity of her plans, of which there are some noble 

 examples still remaining, that abundantly show the power of 

 his creative genius." Mr. Dallaway, when treating on archi- 

 tecture, in his Anecdotes of the Arts, says, " Kent designed 

 the noble hall at Holkham, terminated by a vast staircase, 

 producing, in the whole, an imposing effect of grandeur not 

 to be equalled in England." Kent died in 1748. He was a 

 contemporary therefore of Horace Walpole. He was buried 

 in the vault at Chiswick, belonging to his friend and patron, 

 Lord Burlington. 



BRIDGMAN'S portrait was a private plate. It exhibited a 



