Arhoretum Britannicum. 559 



like the scenery of a natural forest, as that it might be mistaken 

 for it. Now, though such scenery round a castle might be very 

 feudal and baronial-looking, and, perhaps, what many would pre- 

 fer, yet it would have no pretensions whatever to be considered as 

 a work of art. So far from art being so concealed, in the pro- 

 ductions of modern landscape-gardening, that it should be no- 

 where discovered, a principle as old as Tasso {L'arte die tutte 

 fa, e nulla si scojpra), the true, and, indeed, self-evident, prin- 

 ciple is, that art should be discoverable everywhere in every 

 work of art : in modern landscape-gardening, for example, in 

 the smoothness of the turf, in the high keeping of the walks, 

 and, above all, in the predominance of exotic trees, shrubs, and 

 plants over indigenous ones. Even the turf should be composed 

 of grasses different from those of the surrounding grass fields. 

 In the ancient or geometrical style of landscape-gardening, art 

 was everywhere avowed ; and, therefore, so far, that style has 

 greater claims to be called a fine art than the modern style, as 

 the latter style is generally practised, or is recommended to be 

 practised, by most authors who have written on the subject. The 

 truth is, that the change from the old style to the new was so 

 sudden and violent as to prevent the admirers of the latter style 

 from examining it deliberately, and tracing it to first principles. 

 But to enter into this subject properly would require more room 

 than can be here afforded ; and we, therefore, merely state, that 

 the point on which all the authors who have hitherto written on 

 landscape-gardening have been deficient is, the omission of the 

 principle of the Recognition of Art. It does not follow, from 

 this, that the writings of these authors are not good, so far as 

 they go ; because, in general, they have been guided by correct 

 feeling: but, by stopping short of this principle, the claim of 

 landscape-gardening to be considered a fine art has never yet 

 been satisfactorily established, nor a sufficient reason shown why 

 the use of foreign trees and shrubs is essential to the modern 

 style. Henceforth it may be considered as an established prin- 

 ciple, that there can be no landscape-gardening in the natural 

 style, where only indigenous trees and shrubs are used. Where 

 no foreign trees are to be obtained, recourse must be had to 

 the geometrical manner of disposing of the local ones. Those 

 who wish other authority than ours on this subject, we refer to 

 the Essai sur V Imitation, by M. Quatremere de Quincy ; a work 

 which a friend of ours is now translating for us, and which we 

 intend to publish for the improvement of young gardeners and 

 architects. 



The progress of taste, like the progress of everything else, 

 is gradual ; and, when it is considered that it is only of late 

 years that we have had anything like satisfactory theories of 

 taste in the fine arts generally, it is not to be wondered at that 



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