THE ENGLISH LANDSCAPE SCHOOL 



289 



so much to admire, was a compendium of all sorts of rural scenery, crowded 

 within the narrow limits of a five acre plot. 



, Fo remost among the leaders of the new style in garden design was 

 __William Kent, who first distinguished himself as an architect and ornamental 

 gardener at his great patron's (Lord Burlington's) villa at Chiswick ; and his 

 additions^ to the plans of Bridgewater and Vanbrugh at Stowe firmly estab- 

 lished his fame. He laid out the gardens at Esher and Claremont, those at 

 Carlton House for the Prince of Wales, and at Rousham in Oxfordshire. He 



IN THE PARK AT STOWE, FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING BY ROWLANDSON. 



appears to have been inspired with a desire to produce results that should 

 ^resemble the compositions of classical landscape painters. 



In the early part of his career Kent followed somewhat^on the lines laid 

 down by Bridgeman, who " disdained to make every division tally to the 

 opposite " and though he still adhered much to straight walks with high 

 clipped hedges, they were his only great lines ; the rest he diversified by 

 wilderness, jhough still within surrounding hedges. , Asjtime went on, Kent 

 entirely left the formal garden and substituted for it the landscape style. 



