252 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



" Improvement too, the idol of the age, 

 Is fed with many a victim. Lo he comes ! 

 The omnipotent magician, Brown, appears ! 

 Down falls the venerable pile, the abode 

 Of our forefathers. . . . 



He speaks — The lake in front becomes a lawn ; 

 Woods vanish, hills subside, and valleys rise. 

 And streams, as if created for his use, 

 Pursue the track of his directing wand." 



Cowper : The Garden. 



Old gardens in every part of England disappeared before 

 the transforming influence of Brown, but luckily, before many 

 years had passed a reaction set in, or it is doubtful whether 

 a single garden would have survived. Sir Uvedale Price 1 

 described his pleasure on approaching " a venerable castle-like 

 mansion built in the beginning of the fifteenth century," 

 through an avenue of fine old trees. " I was much hurt," 

 he continues, " to learn from the master of the place, that I 

 might take my leave of the avenue and its romantic effects, 

 for that its death-warrant was signed. The destruction of so 

 many of these venerable approaches is a fatal consequence of 

 the present excessive horror of straight lines. ... As to saving 

 a few of the trees, I own I never saw it done with a good effect ; 

 they always pointed out the old line, and the spot was haunted 

 by the ghost of the departed avenue. ... At a gentleman's 

 place in Cheshire, there is an avenue of oaks. Mr. Brown 

 absolutely condemned it, but it now stands a noble monument 

 of the triumph of the natural feelings of the owner over the 

 narrow and systematic ideas of a professed improver." One 

 is thankful that a few people had strength of mind enough to 

 resist the all-powerful Brown. 



The management of water was considered Brown's strong 

 point. A pleasing example of a sheet of water laid out by 

 him is that at Castle Ashby. 2 As it is now " improved by 

 time " it could not fail to please even the most determined 

 detractors of Brown. But here, too, Brown's hand worked 

 destruction as well as improvement, for two rows of trees, 

 forming part of one of the avenues planted about 1699, were 



1 Sir U. Price, On the Picturesque, 1794. 



2 Belonging to the Marquess of Northampton. 



