LANDSCAPE GARDENING 261 



Repton, 1 and though he wished for drastic changes in the fish- 

 ponds and avenues, he was not allowed to have his own way. 

 He longed to restore " these unsightly basins " to a natural 

 shape, and as to the avenues — elm, lime, and sweet chestnut — 

 he wrote : " There is no ingenuity in planting long rows of 

 trees," or " cutting straight lines through a large wood. I 

 should wish to obliterate all traces of art." He sums up his 

 impressions of Burley, with its terraces, avenues, and spacious 

 gardens, in words that show his whole attitude to formal 

 gardening : " Burley possesses all the three great requisites of 

 beauty, wood, water and uneven ground . . . but I never saw 

 a place of so much natural beauty, so much counteracted by 

 artificial mismanagement of former times." 



Repton was not the last of this school to admire and extol 

 Brown ; some few still spoke of him in glowing terms : 



" Born to grace Nature, and her works complete 

 With all that's beautiful, sublime and great, 

 For him each Muse enwreathes the laurel crown, 

 And consecrates to Fame immortal Brown." 2 



As late as 1835 Dennis refers to him as a great " improver 

 of English taste." 3 This author also bestows praise on some 

 changes that Brown himself might have been proud of, if his 

 achievements were measured by the amount he swept away. 

 He speaks of the alterations in St. James's Park as " the 

 best obliteration of avenues " that " has been effected . . . 

 but it has involved a tremendous destruction of fine elms. 

 Certainly considerable credit redounds to the projector of 

 these improvements for astounding ingenuity in converting a 

 Dutch Canal into a fine flowing river, with incurvated banks, 

 terminated at one end by a planted island, and at the other by 

 a peninsula." This was " planned and executed " by Eyton 

 in 1827. The grounds of Buckingham Palace were about this 



1 " 1712. By three Rollstones for ye Garden, £1 10. By levelling 

 a second time the Hill at the East end of the House, levelling the 

 Bowling green (West), ^115 2. 7. To William Benidge, ye Carpenter, 

 for work at ye Bowling green House, £6 19. 6. 



2 The Rise and Progress of the Present Taste of Planting, an 

 epistle to Charles Lord Viscount Irwin, 1767. Manuscript in Guildhall 

 Library. 



3 The Landscape Gardener, by J. Dennis, 1835. 



