DAWN OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



227 



ground as pleasing as the largest walk in the most magnificent 

 garden one can think of ? and why are not little gardens and 

 Basons of water as useful and surprising (and indeed why not 

 more so) at some considerable Distance from the Mansion 

 House as they are near it ?" The gardens I have quoted above, 

 and his own plans, however, do not go as far as admitting 

 cornfields, but the garden had ceased to be an enclosure, and* 

 was already encroaching on the park and surrounding country. 

 The movement in its beginning was a good one, especially this 

 casting off some of the unnatural formality and stiffness that 

 gardens of the Dutch type had reached. On the other hand, 

 if French gardens were copied, a larger space to work upon was 

 needed, and much more expense involved ; so gradually the 

 natural surroundings were made use of, to help out the design, 

 and thus, if possible, to cut down the cost. 



I do not think that the pioneers of the landscape style 

 can be blamed for the abuse of it a few years later ; when the 

 real flower-garden, " the terrestrial Paradise " of flowers, was 

 gradually banished, and instead of a garden encroaching on 

 a park, the park came up to the house, and the flower garden 

 nearly disappeared. People were tiring of " Topiary " work, 

 which had so long been popular. Instead of cut hedges, alleys, 

 arbours, and a few standard trees, gardens were overcrowded 

 with a confusion of cut bushes, and it is not surprising that any- 

 one with a love of the beauties of Nature, as she appears 

 in woods and fields, should long to see, at any rate, an occa- 

 sional tree left to grow in its own wild and graceful way. ** Our 

 British gardeners," wrote Addison, 1 " instead of humouring 

 Nature, love to deviate from it as much as possible. Our Trees 

 rise in Cones, Globes, and Pyramids. We see the marks of the 

 scissars upon every Plant and Bush. I do not know whether I 

 am singular in my Opinion, but, for my own part, I would rather 

 look upon a tree in all its Luxuriancy and Diffusion of Boughs 

 and Branches, than when it is thus cut and trimmed into a 

 Mathematical Figure ; and cannot but fancy that an Orchard 

 in Flower looks infinitely more delightful than all the little 

 Labyrinths of the most finished Parterre." 



The next year (1713) Pope followed up this appeal for natural 

 1 Spectator, 414, June 25th, 1712. 



15—2 



