90 KEW GARDENS 



Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother, 

 And half the platform just reflects the other. 

 The suffering eye inverted nature sees, 

 Trees cut to statues, statues thick as trees ; 

 With here a fountain, never to be played, 

 And there a summer-house that knows no shade. 



About the same time the Spectator complains : 

 " Our trees rise in cones, globes, and pyramids. 

 We see the marks of the scissors upon every plant 

 and bush. I do not know whether I am singular 

 in my opinion, but for my own part, I would 

 rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy and 

 diffusion of boughs and branches, than when it 

 is thus cut and trimmed into a mathematical 

 figure ; and cannot but fancy that an orchard 

 in flower looks infinitely more delightful than 

 all the little labyrinths of the most finished 

 parterre." But Addison rather surprises us by 

 pointing abroad for better models " in an agree- 

 able mixture of garden and forest, which represent 

 everywhere an artificial rudeness, much more 

 charming than that neatness and elegancy which 

 we meet with in those of our own country." 



At all events, the revolt against that formal 

 orthodoxy was raised under the standard of what 

 came to be called the English school, whose 

 principles suggest those of Gothic architecture. 



