fntrofeuctfon 27 



and delight; and the fact that he proposed to ac- 

 complish this transformation not by extending 

 architectural works throughout the valley, not by 

 constructing mighty terraces, mile-long avenues, or 

 great formal water basins, such as he had seen in 

 Italy, at Versailles, and at Wilhelmshohe — ^but by 

 quietly inducing nature to transform herself. He 

 would not force upon his native landscape any 

 foreign type of beauty ; on the contrary, his aim was 

 the transfiguration, the idealization of such beauty as 

 was indigenous. He was intent upon evolving 

 from out of the confused natural situation a com- 

 position in which all that was fundamentally 

 characteristic of the scenery, the history and in- 

 dustry of his estate should be harmoniously and 

 beautifully united. 



"One circumstance greatly favoured the happy 

 accomplishment of his design — ^namely, the very 

 fact that he had to do with a valley and not 

 with a plain or plateau. The irregularly rising 

 land skirting the river-levels supplied a frame 

 for his picture: the considerable stream, flowing 

 through the midst of the level, with here and there 

 a sweep toward the enclosing hills, became the all- 

 connecting and controlling element in his landscape. 

 Well he knew that what artists call 'breadth' 

 and 'unity of effect' was fuUy assured if only he 

 abstained from inserting impertinent structures or 

 other objects in the midst of this hill bounded 

 intervale. " 



