876 



LANDRETH 



LANDSCA PE GARDENING 



years. At a subsequent date be way made president of 

 the Philadelphia Society fur the Promotion of Agricul- 

 ture, and vice-president of the United States Agricul- 

 tural Society, and became an active member of many 

 'Other organizations. 



His literary labors included the publication of the 

 "Illustrated Floral Magazine," started in 1832, and an 

 advanced work for that period. At a later date he wrote 

 much upon husbandry, his graceful style as a writer 

 and bis technical knowledge of the subject making his 

 views of much value in the progress of the industry. 

 He edited an American edition of George W. Johnson's 

 "A Dictionary of Modern Gardening," a volume of G35 

 pages, published at Philadelphia in 1647. 



In 184? the Landreth nursery was removed to Blooms- 

 dale, where Mr. Landreth established what is believed 

 "to be the most complete seed-farm in the United States, 

 and where he planted an arboretum which perhaps stands 

 unequaled in this country in the development of its trees. 

 He was an early breeder of tbe Channel Island cattle, 

 then styled Alderneys, and was among the earliest man- 

 ufacturers of mowing and reaping machinery. In 1872-73 

 ihe experimented in steam-plowing with a Scotch engine, 

 and in the following year with an American engine. 

 Subsequently, steam-digging and steam-chopping were 

 ■experimented with at Bloomsdale, and many improve- 

 ments produced in the machine shop of that model 

 farm. 



David Landreth lived until 1880 in the enjoyment and 

 ■care of the business which had been so much developed 

 in bis hands, and wbicb bad reached almost its hun- 

 dredth year. The firm is now one of the thirty cente- 

 nary firms in the United States. During a long life be 

 bad served his country in connection with agriculture, 

 ■& pursuit wbicb he dignified by the wide respect he bad 

 gained as an old-school country gc^ntleman, and bis 

 reputation as an able and learned agriculturist. In early 

 life he had lived amid the plantations of the Landreth 

 nursery, one of the show places of Philadelphia— the 

 site now marked by the Landreth School— and bis vir- 

 tues and character were those of one brought up in inti- 

 mate contact with nature. Burnet L\n'deetii 



LANDSCAPE GAKDENING. ''Gardening may be 

 -divided into three species— kitchen gardening— parterre - 

 gardening — and landskip, or picturesque gardening: 

 which latter is the subject intended in tbe following 

 pages — It consists in pleasing the imagination by scenes 

 of grandeur, beauty, or variety. Convenience merely 

 has no sliare here ; any farther than as it pleases tbe 

 Imagination." These are the opening lines of "Uncon- 

 nected Thoughts on Gardening," by the poet William 



Sbenstone, 1704. These sentences gave the world the 

 term Landscape Gardening, to embody the growing de- 

 sire to make grounds like nature. Milton, Addison, 

 Pope, and the Dutch painters, expressed tbe awakening 

 to the charms of the external world and hastened the day 

 of freedom and naturalness. These and others bad pro- 

 tested, directly or indirectly, against tbe artificialisms 

 of living, as Bacon, also, in the following sentence, had 

 protested: "As for the making of Knots or Figures, with 

 divers Colored Earths, they be but toys, you may see 

 as good sights many times in Tarts. ■■" '■' * * * * 

 I do not like Images cut out in Juniper, or other gar- 

 den-stuff ; they are for Children." 



(Jne does not know what Shenstone's protest meant 

 until be knows tbe style of gardening which bad been 

 and still was in vogue. Gardens were fantastic construc- 

 tions, elaborate with designs and formalities, cramped 

 with geometrical details. A Roman garden (Fig. 1227)wa3 

 well enough in its place, but there are other conditions 

 and other ideals. Only rarely can such gardens as these 

 find tbe proper setting. If etfective, thej- must be domi- 

 nated or supported by architecture. In the freer atmos- 

 phere of the country, they are evidently artificial: they 

 are conceits. The reader will catch the feeling of tbe 

 formal gardens of a later time by looking at Fig. 1228, 

 which is a reduction from one of Batty Langley's de- 

 signs in his " New Principles of Gardening," 1728. 

 Langley seems to have been tbe extremest of geometri- 

 cians. In fact. Part I of his book on gardening treats 

 "Of Geometry." Yet bis plates suited the taste of the 

 time. The particular plan which is shown in Fig. 1228 

 be describes as follows: "Tbe House opens to the North 

 upon the Park A, to tbe East upon the Court B, to the 

 South upon the Parterre of Grass and Water C ; and 

 Lastly to the West upon the circular Bason D, from 

 wbicb leads a pleasant Avenue ZX. The Mount F, is 

 raised with the Earth that came out of the Canal EE, 

 and its slope H is planted with Hedges of different 

 Ever-Greens, that rising behind one another of different 

 Colours, have a very good Etfect, being view'd from M. 

 I, I, are contracted Walks leading up the Mount." Tbe 

 ideas of the time are further reflected in Fig. 1229, which 

 is a reproduction, on a smaller scale, of one of Langley's 

 pictures of artificial ruins. It is one of bis "views of the 

 Ruins of Buildings, after tbe old Roman manner, to ter- 

 minate such Walks that end in disagreeahle Objects ; 

 which Ruins may either be painted upon Canvas, or 

 actually built in that manner with Brick, and cover'd 

 with Plaistering in Imitation of Stone." 



The awakening love of nature and of the spontaneous 

 life, as expressed in writings and paintings, soon found 

 expression also in gardens. In verse, Pope gave rules 



1227. Gardens of the Pope, on the Quirinal, Rome. From Falda's " Li Giardini di Roma." 



