156 



wooded banks of a river, to the " bare shaven border of a 

 canal."* 



Daines Barrington happily said, " Kent has been suc- 

 ceeded by Browne, who hath undoubtedly great merit in 

 laying out pleasure-grounds ; but I conceive that in some of 

 his plans, I see rather traces of the kitchen-gardener of old 

 Stowe, than of Poussin or Claude Lorraine : I could wish, 

 therefore, that Gainsborough gave the design, and that 

 Browne executed it."f Mr. Loudon observes, " that Browne 

 must have possessed considerable talents, the extent of his 

 reputation abundantly proves ; but that he was imbued with 

 much of that taste for picturesque beauty, which distin- 

 guished the works of Kent, Hamilton, and Shenstone, we 

 think will hardly be asserted by any one who has observed 

 attentively such places as are known to be his creations." 

 Mr. George Mason candidly asks, " why Browne should be 

 charged with all the defects of those that have called them- 

 selves his followers, I have' seen no good reason alleged, 



* Sir Uvedale thus expresses his own sensations when viewing some of 

 these plantations : " The inside fully answers to the dreary appearance of 

 the outside ; of all dismal scenes it seems to me the most likely for a man 

 to hang himself in ; he would, however, find some difficulty in the execu- 

 tion, for amidst the endless multitude of stems, there is rarely a single side 

 branch to which a rope could be fastened. The whole wood is a collection 

 of tall naked poles. . . . Even its gloom is without solemnity ; it is only 

 dull and dismal; and what light there is, like that of hell, 



Serves only to discover scenes of woe, 

 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades." 



f This observation confirms what Sir U. Price so pointedly enforces 

 throughout the whole of his causticly sportive letter to Mr. Repton : " that 

 the best landscape painters would be the best landscape gardeners, were 

 they to turn their minds to the practical part ; consequently, a study of 

 their works, the most useful study to an improver. "-^And that " Van Huy- 

 sum would be a much better judge of the merits and defects of the most 

 dressed scene of a mere flower garden, than a gardener." 



