o 



7 



and violent. Hence arose tlie sloped 

 terrace, the square and octagon pool, and 

 all those geometric figures which were 

 intended to contrast, and not to assimi- 

 late with, any scenes in nature : yet within 

 this small inclosure an unity of design 

 was strictly preserved, and few attempts 

 made to extend it farther than the gar- 

 den wall. 



From the difference of taste in Gar- 

 dening betwixt the seventeenth and the 

 eighteenth centuries, it seems at first 

 sight almost impossible to lay down any 

 fixed principles. It appears that in this 

 instance, as in many others, mankind are 

 apt to fly from one extreme to the other: 

 thus, because straight lines and highly 

 finished and correspondent parts prevailed 

 in the ancient style, some modern im- 

 provers have mistaken crookedness for 

 the line of beauty, and slovenly careless- 

 ness for natural ease: they call every spe- 

 cies of regularity formal; and with the 

 hacknied assertion, that nature abhors a 

 straight line, they fatigue the eye with 

 continual curvatures. 



