CHAPTER IX 



THE GARDEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 



LAYING out grounds, as it is called, may be considered as a WILLIAM 

 liberal art, in some sort like poetry and painting; and its ob- ' 



ject, like that of all the liberal arts is, or ought to be, to move the 

 affections under the control of good sense ; that is, those of the 

 best and wisest : but speaking with more precision, it is to assist 

 Nature in moving the affections, and surely, as I have said, the 

 affections of those who have the deepest perception of the beauty 

 of Nature ; who have the most valuable feelings, that is, the most 

 permanent, and most independent, the most ennobling, connected 

 with Nature and human life. No liberal art aims merely at the 

 gratification of an individual or a class : the painter or poet is 

 degraded in proportion as he does so ; the true servants of the 

 arts pay homage to the human kind as impersonated in unwarped 

 enlightened minds. If this be so when we are merely putting 

 together words or colours, how much more ought the feeling to 

 prevail when we are in the midst of the realities of things ; of the 

 beauty and harmony, of the joy and happiness of living creatures 

 of men and children, of birds and beasts, of hills and streams, 

 and trees and flowers ; with the changes of night and day, evening 

 and morning, summer and winter ; and all their unwearied actions 

 and energies, as benign in the spirit that animates them, as they 

 are beautiful and grand in that form and clothing which is given 

 to them for the delights of our senses. Letter to Sir G. Beaumont ', 

 1805. 



VfET now ^at these ridiculous anomalies have fallen into SIR 

 ' general disuse, it must be acknowledged that there exist 

 gardens, the work of Loudon, Wise, and such persons as laid out (1771-1832). 

 ground in the Dutch taste, which would be much better subjects 



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