P R E F A C E. v 



and the cafcades glide from the heights by many a fuc- 

 ceffion of marble fteps: not a twig is fufTered to grow- 

 as nature directs; nor is a form admitted but what is 

 fcientific, and determinable by the line or compafs. 



In England, where this antient ftyle is held in de* 

 teftation, and where, in oppofition to the reft of Europe, 

 a new manner is univerfally adopted, in which no appear- 

 ance of art is tolerated, our gardens differ very little from 

 common fields, fo clofely is common nature copied in 

 moft of them; there is generally fo little variety in the 

 objects, fuch a poverty of imagination in the contrivance, 

 and of art in the arrangement, that thefe compositions 

 rather appear the offspring of chance than defign ; and a 

 ftranger is often at a lofs to know whether he be walking 

 in a meadow, or in a pleafure ground, made and kept at 

 a very considerable expence: he fees nothing to amufe 

 him, nothing to excite his curiofity, nor any thing to keep 

 up his attention. At his firft entrance, he is treated 

 with the light of a large green field, fcattered oyer with 

 a few ftragghng trees, and verged with a con fu fed bord :r 



B of 



