XXl-V^ MEMOIR. • 



Kemarks on Kural Architecture. By A. J. Downing." 

 The .most concise and comprfehensive definition of Land- 

 scape, G-ardeniag that occurs in his works, is to be found 

 in the essay, " Hintsi on Landscape Gardening.'' " It is 

 an art/' hej, says, " which selects from/ natilra,! materials 

 that abound in any country its best sylvan features, and 

 by giving them a better opportunity than they could, 

 otherwise obtain, brings about a. hig^er^ beauty of. de- 

 velopment and a mcire perfect expression than nature 

 herself offers." The preface of the book is quite with- 

 out pretence. "The love of country," says our author, 

 with a gravity that overtops his years, "is inseparably 

 connected with , the love of home< Whatever, therefore,, 

 leads man to assemble the comforts and elegancies: of ■ 

 life around his habita,tion, tends tb increase local attach- 

 inents^ and render doinfestic life inore delightful ; thus, not 

 only augmenting his own ehjoyment, but. strengthening 

 his patriotism, and making him a "better citizen. And 

 there is ho employment or recreation whi6h' affords the 

 mind gi'eater or more permanent satisfaction thaii that of ." 

 cultivating the. earth and adorning our own prgperty. 

 ' God Almighty ;first planted a garden ; and, indeed, it is 

 the parent of human, pleasures,' says Lord Bacon. And' 

 as the first man was shut out from the garden, in the cul-' 

 tiyation of which no alloy was mixed with his happiness, 

 the desire to return to it seems to be implanted by nature, ■ 

 .more or less strongly, in every heart." 



This book j)assed to iri,stant ..popularity, and becarae a 

 classic, invaluable to the thousdihds in every fart of the 

 country who were waiting- for the master-word which 

 should teU them what to do to make their homes as beau- 

 tiful as they wished. Its fine scholarship in the literature 

 and history of rural art ; its. singular dexterity in stating 



