CHAPTER VIII 



GARDEN DESIGN AS A LIBERAL OR FINE ART: THE 'COMPOSI- 

 TION' OF NATURE OR LANDSCAPE REACTION OF THE 

 ' PICTURESQUE ' WRITERS COSMOPOLITANISM AND ECLEC- 

 TICISM IN THE GARDEN. 



THOMAS Lotidon in the ' Encyclopedia of Gardening* says of kirn : ' His " Observa- 



WHATELY tions on Modern Gardening" published in 1770, is the grand fundamental and 

 (d. I77 2 )' standard work on English gardening. It is entirely analytical ; treating first 



of the materials, then of the scenes , and lastly, of the subjects of gardening. Its 

 style has been pronounced by the learned Eason, inimitable : and the descriptions 

 with which his investigations are accompanied have been largely copied and 

 amply praistd by Alison in his work on " Taste" The book was soon 

 translated into the continental languages, and is judiciously praised in the 

 Mercure de France, Journal Ency eloped ique and Wieland's Journal. G. Mason 

 alone dissents from the general opinion, enlarging on the very few faults or 

 peculiarities which are to be found in the book? Whately was the brother of 

 the then proprietor of Nonstich Park, near Epsom in Surrey, which place he 

 mainly assisted in ' laying out. ' He was for a short time secretary to the Earl 

 of Suffolk ; then M. P. and secretary to the Treasury ; besides this work, he 

 published two anonymous English pamphlets, and died in 1772. After his 

 death his Remarks on Shakespeare were published in 1785 by his brother, the 

 Rev. DrJ. Whately, and a second edition in 1808 by his nephew Dr R. Whately, 

 Archbishop of Dublin, 1831. 



f~^ ARDENING, in the perfection to which it has been lately 

 ^-* brought in England, is entitled to a place of considerable 

 rank among the liberal arts. It is as superior to landskip-painting 

 as a reality to a representation : it is an exertion of fancy, a 

 subject for taste ; and being released now from the restraints of 

 regularity and enlarged beyond the purposes of domestic con- 

 venience, the most beautiful, the most simple, the most noble 

 scenes of nature are all within its province : for it is no longer 



confined to the spots from which it borrows its name, but 

 i 94 



