248 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



" horror or terror." " A feigned steeple of a distant church 

 or an unreal bridge, to disguise the termination of water," 1 

 were brought in to " improve the landscape." These designers 

 were careful not only of form, but also of colour ; the " solemn 

 grove " had to be planted with trees of dark foliage, and some 

 touch of bright colour was introduced to give effect to the 

 landscape. " An object of a sober tint unexpectedly gilded 

 by the sun is like a serious countenance suddenly lighted up 

 by a smile, a whitened object, like the eternal grin of a fool," 2 

 wrote one authority on the subject. Such were the high-flown 

 ideas which inspired these designers, but in their efforts to 

 reproduce the beauties of Nature they fell into the most 

 artificial system that can possibly be imagined. William 

 Mason's poem, " The English Garden," addressed to " Divine 

 Simplicity," is characteristic of the spirit which guided these 

 " reformers," of which Sir Walter Scott said it " is not sim- 

 plicity but affectation labouring to seem simple." 



Many places were laid out on this new plan by Kent. The 

 gardens at Esher, 



" Where Kent and Nature vied for Pelham's love," 



and at Claremont, were considered some of his best produc- 

 tions ; also Carlton House, which he designed for the Prince of 

 Wales. Walpole thought " the most engaging of all Kent's 

 works," and most " elegant and antique," was Rousham, in 

 Oxfordshire. Gunnersbury, near London, 3 is also chiefly his 

 handiwork. The original house, which was built by Inigo 

 Jones, or his pupil, Webbe, in 1663, for Sir John Maynard, 

 has disappeared, but the garden still shows much of the 

 designs carried out by Kent about 1750, together with the 

 further " Plantations " and " elegant erections " added by 

 Princess Amelia, who bought the place in 1761, and spent large 

 sums on the garden. The wall, some of the temples, and a 

 bath summer-house built by her, and an imitation Gothic ruin 

 still remain, as well as many fine timber trees, particularly 



1 Horace Walpole, Essay on Modern Gardening. 



2 Sir Uvedale Price, On the Picturesque. 



3 Belonging to Mr. Leopold Rothschild, now specially famous for 

 the fruit growing under glass, which is carried to great perfection. 



