Chapter VII 



Farm and Park Distinct Objects — Beauty and 

 Profit seldom compatible 



THE French term Ferme ornee was, I believe, in- 

 vented by Mr. Shenstone, who was conscious that 

 the English word " Farm " would not convey the idea 

 which he attempted to realise in the scenery of the 

 Leasowes. That much celebrated spot, in his time, con- 

 sisted of many beautiful small fields, connected with 

 each other by walks and gates, but bearing no resemb- 

 lance to a farm as a subject of profit. I have never 

 walked through these grounds without lamenting, not 

 only the misapplication of good taste, but that constant 

 disappointment which the benevolent Shenstone must 

 have experienced in attempting to unite two objects so 

 incompatible as ornament and profit. Instead of sur- 

 rounding his house with such a quantity of ornamental 

 lawn or park only as might be consistent with the size 

 of the mansion or the extent of the property, his taste, 

 rather than his ambition, led him to ornament the whole 

 of his estate, vainly hoping that he might retain all the 

 advantages of a farm, blended with the scenery of a park. 

 Thus he lived under the continual mortification of dis- 

 appointed hope, and, with a mind exquisitely sensible, 

 he felt equally the sneer of the great man, at the magni- 

 ficence of his attempt, and the ridicule of the farmer, 

 at the misapplication of his paternal acres. 



Since the removal of courtyards and lofty garden- 

 walls from the front of a house, the true substitute for 



