Theory and Practice 165 



tion, all sameness would easily be obviated, perhaps, 

 by making one of them a winter walk, planted chiefly 

 with evergreens and shrubs. To justify my opinion it 

 is necessary to guard against a misconstruction of what 

 I have advanced, lest I may be accused of reviving the 

 old taste of gardening. I do not recommend the ter- 

 race as an object of beauty in all cases, but of conven- 

 ience ; for the same reason that I advise the proximity 

 of a kitchen-garden, provided the principal apartments 

 do not look upon either. 



Our ancestors were so apt to be guided by utility 

 that they at length imagined it was in all cases a sub- 

 stitute for beauty ; and thus we frequently see ancient 

 houses surrounded not only by terraces, avenues, and 

 fish-ponds, but even stables and the meanest offices 

 formed a part of the view from the windows of their 

 principal rooms. I am far from recommending a return 

 to these absurdities ; yet, in the rage for picturesque 

 beauty, let us remember that the landscape holds an 

 inferior rank to the historical picture : one represents 

 nature, the other relates to man in a state of society. If 

 we banish winter comforts from the country-seats of our 

 nobility, we shall also banish their inhabitants, who gen- 

 erally reside there more in winter than in summer; and 

 there is surely no object of greater comfort and utility 

 belonging to a garden and a country mansion, than a 

 dry spacious walk for winter, sheltered by such trees as 

 preserve their clothing, while all other plants are desti- 

 tute of foliage. 



I will add the opinion of a very able commentator, 

 who, mentioning "this self-evident proposition, that 

 a rural scene in reality and a rural scene on canvas are 

 not precisely one and the same thing," says, " that point 

 in which they differ here is not itself without a guiding 



