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pleasure derived from this art; and these 



" beauty, so is every body else 5 but is it contended 

 " that in laying out a place, whatever is most pictu- 

 " resque is most conformable to true taste? If they say 

 " so, as they seem to do in many passages, they must 

 " be led to consequences which they can never venture 

 " to avow: if they do not say so, the whole is a ques- 

 •' tion of how much, or how little, which without the 

 " instances before yoa can never be decided ; and all that 

 " they can do is to lay down a system as depending on 

 " one principle, wh.ch they themselves are obliged to 

 " confess afterwards,, depends upon many. They either 

 " say what is false, or what turns out upon examina- 

 *■• tion to be— nothing at all. I hope, therefore, that 

 "■you will pursue the system which I conceive you to 

 " have adopted, and vindicate to the art of laying out 

 " ground its true principles, which are wholly differ- 

 " ent from those which these wild improvers would 

 "■ wish to introduce. Places are not to be laid out with 

 " a view to their appearance in a picture, but to tJieir 

 "" uses, and the enjoyment of them in real life, and their 

 " conformity to those purposes is that which constitutes 

 "" their true beauty ; with this view gravel- walks, and 

 " neat mown lawns^ and in some situations straight al^ 

 " leys, fountains, terraces, and, for aught 1 know, par- 

 " terres and cut hedges, are in perfect good taste, and 

 " infinitely more conformable to the principles which 

 " form the basis of our pleasure in these instances, than 

 " tlie docks and tliistles, and litter and disorder, tliat 

 " may make a much better figure in a picture." 



