242 Design Jhr laying out 



seems to be grosser and stronger, and therefore more intensely 

 felt by ordinary minds. The figure of the Antinous, perhaps the 

 heau ideal of manly beauty, either in marble or on canvass, 

 would attract less attention from an ordinary observer, than that 

 of a deformed or defective figure; and the proper forms and 

 proportions of the different parts of the body could, in the 

 first instance, be better pointed out to such an observer by show- 

 ing him their opposites in the deformed figure, than by pointing 

 out their exemplification in the perfect one. In short, all beauty, 

 to be perceived and relished, requires a considerable degree of 

 cultivation in the mind of the observer ; and all the qualities of 

 objects to which we most wish to direct attention are more forci- 

 bly pointed out by contrasting them with their opposites. 



Having, as we think, established the principle of the great 

 utility of sometimes giving defective plans, in order to enable 

 our readers to produce good ones, we shall now proceed to re- 

 mark on the first design which has been sent us in competition. 

 We shall previously, however, repeat here our engraving of the 

 sketch originally sent to us, viz.. Jig. 29. 



This is certainly a hideous plan, but it is one which has been 

 executed ; and it is not worse than hundreds of others that may 

 be seen in different seats throughout the country. These gar- 

 dens are generally the result of accident. The gardener, per- 

 haps, has put down a bed or two, and next year is directed by 

 his master or mistress to put down another on the lawn, in shape 

 like one belonging to some neighbour, or to some great person- 

 age. Then, perhaps, some friend, who passes for a connoisseur, 

 recommends something additional ; and, in the end, an assem- 

 blage of forms is produced, such as that which we have before 

 us, without congruity or harmony ; and, above all, without an ob- 

 vious reason for any one of them. It is quite incredible that such 

 designs, and worse, are every year executed, even in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London ; but it is nevertheless a fact : and we know 

 no method in which the evil can be remedied, but by diffusing a 

 knowledge of the principles of criticism in this department of art 

 among gardeners and their employers, and among the latter 

 more especially. If the employers of gardeners possessed more 

 taste ; or, rather, if they were sufficiently competent to criticise, 

 they would soon create a demand for gardeners who possessed 

 more of this kind of talent; and they would also be aware of the 

 value of employing a garden artist. At present this is by no 

 means the case ; and a proprietor, for the sake of saving ten or 

 twenty pounds for a plan, contents himself with what is supplied 

 by his gardener, or the nurseryman he may happen to employ. 

 We approve highly of the plan of the gardener being adopted, 

 where he is competent to give one ; but what we insist on is, 

 that the employers have very seldom a sufficient degree of know- 



