INTRODUCTION. 



" And let us to our fresh employments rise 

 Among the groves, the fountains, and the flowers, 

 That open now their choicest bosomed smells, 

 Reserved from night and kept for thee in store." 



Milton. 



The shrubbery is a style of pleasure-garden 

 which seems to owe its creation to the idea 

 that our sublime poet formed of Eden. It 

 originated in England, and is as peculiar to 

 the British nation as landscape-planting. 

 Whilst other arts have been derived from 

 ancient or borrowed from modern inventions, 

 this has indisputably sprung from the genius 

 of our soil, and is perhaps one of the most de- 

 lightful, as well as most beneficial, of all that 

 claim the name of elegant. 



Ornamental plantations are now so univer- 

 sally spread over the face of this country, 

 that our island may be qprnpared to a vase 



VOL. I. B 



