and Villa Companion. 433 



landscape-gardening, as arts of design and taste. When these 

 subjects are brought before the reader in a continuous and 

 systematic form, unless his mind has been previously prepared 

 by appropriate studies, he can hardly be expected to understand 

 the principles laid down, in such a manner as to be able to apply 

 them in practice ; and thus the whole may be perused without 

 any real benefit being gained by him. As a proof of this, 

 we may refer to Whately's Observations on Modern Gardening, 

 and Price's Essays on the Picturesque^ two of the best books on 

 landscape-gardening which have ever been written ; and yet we 

 question whether there ever was a single practical gardener who, 

 after perusing them, could say, "Now I shall set about laying 

 out a plantation, or forming a piece of water, in a different 

 manner from what I have hitherto done." In the Suburban Gar^ 

 dener, one principle only is illustrated at a time ; and that prin- 

 ciple is always reduced to its very simplest form, and connected 

 with some point of practice, in such a manner as, we think, will 

 render it clear to every working gardener. 



For example, in the Observations on Modern Gardening, 

 where wood is the subject, the principles by which the disposition 

 of this material in landscape is regulated are laid down at great 

 length, and illustrated by the descriptions of woods in various 

 parts of England ; scarcely one page of which, we think, could 

 be turned to account in the actual practice of a working gar- 

 dener. In the Sidmrban Garde?ier, we have treated of woods and 

 plantations in various places; and, to refer to the first that occurs 

 to us, which is in p. 737., we there show by a diagram, and 

 describe by letterpress, the difference between deformity of lines 

 and shapes in plantations, and picturesque lines and shapes. 

 We have, by this diagram and its accompanying description, 

 we think, conveyed more information to the uninitiated reader, 

 than he will be able to draw from all the profound and philoso- 

 phical discussions on the subject of wood contained in the 

 Observations ; acknowledging, as we do, at the same time, 

 that the latter are altogether unexceptionable in point of doc- 

 trine. We merely say that they are too profound and abstract 

 to be reduced to practice by ordinary working gardeners, and 

 that there is nothing in the nature of the subject which prevents 

 it from being understood by the most ordinary capacity. All 

 that is necessary is, to infuse the knowledge into the mind in 

 small quantities at a time, and by degrees ; beginning with those 

 principles which are most easily understood, and never laying 

 down a rule without referring it to a principle. 



On the subject of water, there is a great deal of sound philo- 

 sophical discussion in the Observatio7is and in the Essays ; but 

 where is the gardener who can apply them ? In our discussion 

 of the question, " What constitutes an agreeable shape in a lake, 



Vol. XIV. — No. 102. f f 



