Public Parks, ii 



art of gardening until the time of Addison, when Bridgeman, the 

 court gardener, in the palace grounds at Kensington, acted upon the 

 suggestions received from the descriptions of travelers of the imita- 

 tions of nature w^hich the Chinese made use of in their gardens. 

 Pope, in his garden at Twickenham, laid aside formality, imitating 

 the natural. Addison's garden at Rugby was informal without 

 being picturesque. " Kent was the first man who really formed a 

 landscape, sweeping away the rubbish which represented the ancient 

 st3de. He undertook the creation of scenery upon the ground at his 

 command, on the same principles that he would select a subject in 

 nature for his canvas. The radical change which followed witnessed 

 the destruction of noble avenues and terraces by the imitators of 

 Kent, in order to demonstrate the capabilities of the ground, and 

 landscape gardening soon became a mechanical business instead of 

 an art, which Kent had made it." * 



It was not until after the publication, by Gilpin, of his various 

 "Picturesque Views," and the "Essays on the Picturesque," by Sir 

 Uvedale Price, in which the true principle of art applicable to the 

 creation of scenery, was laboriously studied and carefully defined, 

 that a revival of the art took place. The poetry of Shenstone, 

 Mason, and Knight assisted in bringing about this result. The 

 most distinguished English landscape gardeners that have flourished 

 since the commencement of the last century, have been Humphrey 

 Repton, who died in iSi8, and John Claudius Loudon, who died 

 in 1843. They developed and carried to its greatest perfection the 

 modern or natural style of landscape gardening, as is evidenced at 

 Blenheim, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough ; Chatsworth, the 

 seat of the Duke of Devonshire, where there are scenes illustrative 

 of almost every style of the art ; and also at Woburn Abbey ; 

 Ashbridge ; and Arundel Castle. More recently the writings of 

 Paxton and Kemp have done much to improve and foster this taste 

 among the English. Soon after the adoption of the natural style in 

 England, it became fashionable upon the Continent; "yet, in the 

 neighborhood of many of the capitals, especially those of the south 

 of Europe, the taste for the geometric or ancient style prevails to a 

 considerable extent ; partially, no doubt, because that style admits, 

 with more facility, of those classical and architectural accompani- 

 ments of vases, statues, busts, etc., the passion for which pervades 

 a people rich in ancient and modern sculptural works of art. 

 Indeed, many of the gardens on the Continent are moi^e striking 



•Downing: ^^ Landscape Gardening^ 



