Preface 69 



a drive, or walk, completely round the verge of a park, 

 except in small villas, where a dry path round a person's 

 own field is always more interesting to him than any other 

 walk. 



7. Small plantations of trees, surrounded by a fence, 

 are the best expedients to form groups, because trees 

 planted singly seldom grow well; neglect of thinning 

 and removing the fence has produced that ugly deform- 

 ity called a clump. 



8. Water on an eminence, or on the side of a hill, is 

 among the most common errors of Mr. Brown's fol- 

 lowers : in numerous instances I have been allowed to 

 remove such pieces of water from the hills to the val- 

 leys, but in many my advice has not prevailed. 



9. Deception may be allowable in imitating the works 

 of nature. Thus artificial rivers, lakes, and rock scenery 

 can only be great by deception, and the mind acquiesces 

 in the fraud after it is detected; but in works of art every 

 trick ought to be avoided. Sham churches, sham ruins, 

 sham bridges, and everything which appears what it is 

 not, disgusts when the trick is discovered. 



10. In buildings of every kind the character should 

 be strictly observed. No incongruous mixture can be 

 justified. To add Grecian to Gothic, or Gothic to 

 Grecian, is equally absurd; and a sharp-pointed arch 

 to a garden-gate or a dairy-window, however frequently 

 it occurs, is not less offensive than Grecian architecture 

 in which the standard rules of relative proportion are 

 neglected or violated. 



11. The perfection of landscape gardening consists 

 in the fullest attention to these principles, — Utility, 

 Proportion, and Unity, or harmony of parts to the 

 whole. 



