172 The Art of Landscape Gardening 



General principles, or general designs, which may be 

 applicable to all situations, would be alike impossible. 

 The painter copies, in their respective places, the eyes, 

 the nose, and mouth of the individual, but, without 

 adding character, his picture will not be interesting. 

 The landscape gardener finds ground, wood, and water, 

 but with little more power than the painter, of changing 

 their relative position ; he adds character, by the point 

 of view in which he displays them, or by the ornaments 

 of art with which they are embellished. To describe by 

 words the various characters and situations of all the 

 places in which I have been consulted would be tedi- 

 ous, and to give views of each would alter the design 

 of this work : I shall, therefore, dedicate this chapter to 

 a miscellaneous assemblage of extracts from different 

 Red Books, without aiming at connexion or arrange- 

 ment. These may furnish examples of variety in the 

 treatment of various subjects ; while the reasons on 

 which their treatment is founded will, I hope, be 

 deemed so far conclusive that some general principles 

 may be drawn from them, tending to prove that there 

 are rules for good taste. 



There is no principle of the art so necessary to be 

 studied as the effects produced on the mind by the 

 first view of certain objects, or, rather, that general dis- 

 position of the human mind by which it is capable of 

 strongly receiving first impressions. We frequently 

 decide on the character of places, as well as of persons, 

 with no other knowledge of either than what is acquired 

 by the first glance of their most striking features ; and 

 it is with difficulty or with surprise that the mind is 

 afterwards constrained to adopt a contrary opinion. 

 Thus, if the approach to a house be over a flat plain 



