xviii . Introduction 



of view. Speaking of intricacy he says : " The eye, 

 or rather the mind, is never long deHghted with 

 that which it surveys without effort, at a single 

 glance, and therefore sees without exciting curios- 

 ity or interest. It is not the vast extent of lawn, the 

 great expanse of water, or the long range of wood, 

 that yields satisfaction ; for these, if shapeless, or, 

 which is the same thing, if their exact shape, how- 

 ever large, be too apparent, only attract our notice 

 by the space they occupy; to fill that space with 

 objects of beauty, to delight the eye after it has 

 been struck, to fix the attention where it has been 

 caught, to prolong astonishment into admiration, 

 are purposes not unworthy of the greatest designs." 

 He could not be accused of mere imitation, for, 

 instead of attempting to reproduce the effects of 

 nature in a mechanical or artificial way, he aimed 

 rather to put in action the causes by which those 

 effects are produced. Then, as he said, the effects 

 would be natural. But Repton was also a practi- 

 cal man. He appreciated the principle of utility. 

 He, like his American successor, Olmsted, had 

 no sympathy with a design that did not provide 

 adequately and frankly for the plain necessities 

 of human living. Half-hearted compromises did 

 not meet his favour ; nevertheless he took pains 

 to reconcile these necessary and artificial features 

 with the artistic aims of the design as a whole. 



Repton's most permanent contribution to his 

 art, however, is to be found not in his works of 



