ON AMERICAN GARDENING 



it is a national misfortune which has not 

 been sufficiently mourned, that he did not 

 live to develop those ideas for us. 



In order to understand the work of 

 Downing, it is necessary to know something 

 of the circumstances by which he was 

 surrounded, and especially of the ideas 

 brewing in his time among the landscape 

 gardeners of England. Launcelot Brown 

 had passed his vogue, but had left England 

 marked forever with his anti-geometric 

 style. Brown had been succeeded by 

 Repton, a greater artist, who had given the 

 new style a conservative and reasonable 

 cast. Repton was being followed by a mul- 

 titude of honest plodders, like Loudon, 

 Kemp and Milner, who had learned the 

 tricks, and who practiced the new style to 

 the best of their abilities and opportunities. 

 This was the England visited by Downing 

 with childlike wonder and delight, yet with 

 manlike insight and comprehension. The 

 work of Repton evidently made a powerful 

 impression upon him, and the horticultural 

 achievements of the English gardeners 

 equally filled him with new ambitions. In 

 America he continued the story of the 

 development of the natural style. 



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