184 The Art of Landscape Gardening 



supported by iron, if architectural forms and projec- 

 tions are to be despised or discarded. 



I should therefore suppose that no treillage ought to 

 be introduced except in situations where creeping plants 

 may be fastened to the framing, which should be stout 

 in proportion to its height or its intentions: it is a com- 

 mon mistake to suppose a thing will look light by being 

 slender ; if it be not equal to its office by its apparent 

 substance, it will look weak, not light ; but the lattice- 

 work is supposed to support nothing, and may there- 

 fore be of any dimensions, and, being always painted, it 

 will be invisible at a distance. 



I could wish, in speaking of architecture, if the use 

 of language would admit of such distinction, to make 

 a difference between the words ornament and decora- 

 tion. The former should include every enrichment bear- 

 ing the semblance of utility ; the latter is supposed to 

 have no relation whatever to the uses or construction of 

 the building; thus, for instance, a house may answer all 

 the purposes of habitation without a column, a pilaster, 

 an entablature, a pediment, a dome, an arcade, or a balus- 

 trade, which I call the external ornaments of Grecian 

 architecture. I include under the word decorations — 

 statues, vases, basso-relievos, sculpture, etc., which have 

 no use but as additional enrichments to the ornaments 

 of architecture; on the contrary, where these decorations 

 are applied to plain buildings without ornaments, they 

 are marks of bad taste. 



The ornaments of architecture must be correct in 

 design, since no degree of costliness in their materials 

 or their workmanship can compensate for any defect in 

 proportion, order, or disposition. The eye of good taste 

 will be equally offended with columns too large or too 



