74 The Art of Landscape Gardening 



The necessity of observing scale or comparative 

 proportion may be further elucidated by a reference 

 to West Wycombe, a place generally known, from its 

 vicinity to the road to Oxford. Amongst the profusion 

 of buildings and ornament which the false taste of the 

 last age lavished upon this spot, many were correct in 

 design, and, considered separately, in proportion ; but 

 even many of the designs, although perfect in them- 

 selves, were rendered absurd from inattention either to 

 the scale or situation of the surrounding objects. The 

 summit of a hill is covered by a large mass of Grecian 

 architecture, out of which apparently rises a small 

 square projection, with a ball at the top, not unlike the 

 kind of cupolas misplaced over stables;'^ but in reality 

 this building is the tower of a church, and the ball a 

 room sufficiently large to contain eight or ten people. 



This comparative proportion, or, in other words, this 

 attention to scale or measurement, is not only necessary 

 with regard to objects near each other, but it forms the 

 basis of all improvement depending on perspective, by 

 the laws of which it is well known that objects diminish 

 in apparent size in proportion to their distance: vet the 

 application of this principle may not, perhaps, have 

 been so universally considered. I shall, therefore, men- 

 tion a few instances in which I have availed myself of 

 its effects. 



At Hurlingham, on the banks of the Thames, the 

 lawn in front of the house was necessarily contracted by 

 the vicinity of the river, yet being too large to be kept 

 under the scythe and roller, and too small to be fed 

 by a flock of sheep, 1 recommended the introduction 

 of Alderney cows only. The effect is that of giving 

 imaginary extent to the place, which is thus measured 

 below a true standard, because if distance will make 



