Retrospective Criticism. 651 



be now. One word more as to the principle you advocate, before I express 

 a doubt as to its practicabilitj'. Do ask Mr. Lamb to take up liis facile 

 pencil, and give you a design for a public building, the Houses of Parliament, 

 the National Gallery, &c. &c., which shall be an al|)habet of architecture ; 

 and when he has finished, let each member have its sign-board hung up to 

 tell the babe in architecture that this is an Ionic volute, that a triglyph, &c. 

 &c. Of course he will not consider proportion, or architectural or artistical 

 effect (perish aesthetics, thought, feeling, taste !), but will take care tiiat every 

 member is so large, that, however distant, the eye may see it fully, so as to 

 comprehend its exact form and position : nay, would it not be the best way 

 to have the scaffolding up, that any one who wishes may have an opportunity 

 of a nearer view ? Now, if you are consistent, you ought to contend for this 

 in our public buildings, as much as for making our parks a collection of 

 labels. If I have thus broadly caricatured your views, it is because 1 know 

 they are deeply rooted, and must therefore require a strong effort to change 

 them. I can scarcely hope to succeed ; but, seeing that they are beginning to 

 be acted upon in high quarters, I am anxious that, before it is too late, they 

 should be re-examined. 



And now as to its practicability. You are already complaining that the 

 names are not sufficiently large ; and you must still complain until you get 

 them as big as a sign-board, and entirely destroy all appearance of a garden. 

 The remedy I should propose would be, either the establishment of a botanic 

 garden in connexion with the park, or placing plans of the grounds in some 

 of the structures in the park, with lists of the trees, &c., and proper references, 

 and instructing the attendants to give assistance in finding particular plants to 

 all enquirers. 



I had intended also to have made a remark or two on your suggestion that 

 a ruined aqueduct should be introduced, but I have not at the present moment 

 the Magazine before me. Kent, I think, planted dead trees in his parks ; but 

 he was soon laughed out of the practice. The time will soon come when 

 artificial ruins will share the same fate. — T. W. Leeds. June, 1843. 



It is seldom that we differ in opinion from this correspondent, to whose 

 taste and judgment we pay great deference. On the present occasion, how- 

 ever, we do not exactly accord with him on any one of the points on which he 

 has touched. 



In the first place, we positively deny that the naming of one plant of each 

 and all of the species and varieties in our parks and pubhc gardens would inter- 

 fere with picturesque effect. There are not above 300 trees and shrubs that 

 are suitable for being planted in pubhc parks where the ground is not dug ; 

 and these, by whatever arrangement might be adopted (unless they were all 

 put together in one small enclosure), would be distributed over a great many 

 acres of surface ; and, among many thousand trees and shrubs which are not 

 named, we do not see that the labels would intrude themselves, or that any 

 description of general effect would be injured by them, while, to those who 

 took an interest in trees, these labels would be extremely interesting ; for the 

 first desire that rises in the mind, when we see a new object with which we are 

 pleased, is to know its name. For one citizen of London that has a taste for 

 picturesque beauty or landscape composition, there are ten thousand tiiat know 

 nothing of either : but that ten thousand may have a curiosity to be gratified, 

 and to them the naming may be a source of interest. We do not think it 

 possible " that a high love for the beauties of nature" can be cultivated in 

 any of the London parks, peopled as they are, from morning to night, with 

 horsemen, carriages, pedestrians, bath-chairs, troops exercising, and even [)o- 

 licemen. Add also, that the surface of the ground is generally comparatively 

 flat. 



With respect to the shrubs, which we have stated (p. 288.) to be planted in 

 alphabetical order, we ought to have mentioned that we totally disapprove of 

 this arrangement anywhere, except in a nursery or in a nurseryman's cata- 

 logue. The trees in Kensington Gardens that are named were planted some 



