998 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



Taste, vol. fi. p. 201.) " To unite these different kinds of beauty ; to dignify ornamental 

 forms by use ; and to raise merely useful forms into beauty, is the great object of ambi- 

 tion among every class of artists. Wherever both these objects can be obtained, the 

 greatest possible beauty that form can receive will be produced. But as this can very 

 seldom be the case, the following rules seem immediately to present themselves for the 

 direction of the artist : — 1. That where the utility of forms is equal, that will be the 

 most beautiful to which the most pleasing expression of form is given. 2. 'I hat where 

 those expressions are at variance; when the beauty of the form cannot be produced with- 

 out sacrificing its utility ; that form will be most universally and most permanently 

 beautiful, in which the expression of utility is most fully preserved." (Essays, \ol. ii. 

 p. 202.) Some of the various modifications of utilitj', as applied to country-residences, 

 may be here enumerated. 



7170. Foj- the purpose of habitation, for example, good air and water, a genial climate, fertile soil, cheer- 

 ful prospect, and suitable' neighborhood, &c. are known requisites. Convenience must be joined to use, 

 comforts to conveniencies, and luxuries to comforts. Exercise, whether in the shape of walking, riding, 

 or driving, requires to be provided for ; and recreation, whether in the common field sports, athletic games, 

 or in botanical, agricultural, and other useful, elegant, or scientific pursuits, must be kept in view : rural 

 fStes and amusements might also be enumerated. 



7171. Accidental associations form the last class of relative beauties, and arc " such associations as, 

 instead of being common to all mankind, are peculiar to the individual. They take their rise from edu- 

 cation, from peculiar habits of thought, from situation, from profession ; and the beautj' they produce is 

 felt only by those whom similar causes have led to the formation of similar associations." iStewart's 

 Essa7/s.} Among these may be reckoned, — 



71/2. Classical and historical associations. The influence of the former in architecture is well known ; 

 the latter often adds charms to a spot, in no respect remarkable to those who are unacquainted with its 

 history. " Classical associations," Stewart observes, " have added immensely to our natural resources, 

 but at the same time, warped our taste in various instances ;" acquiring, as Alison adds, " a superiority 

 over the more permanent principles of beauty, and determining for a time the taste of nations." 



7173. National associations are also frequently at variance with such as are universal, and have, perhaps, 

 greater influence than any other associations whatever. {Steii'a7-t's Essays.) 



7174. Personal associations, or such as arise from the accidental style of natural beauties, to which we 

 have been accustomed in our youth. Many particulars come under this head, which it would be tedious 

 to enumerate ; but one mode of vanity and selfish feeling deserves particular notice, as intimately con- 

 nected with the business of the landscape-gardener. It is that interest which the attachment to property 

 creates in men's minds, " rendering them alive to every trifling recommendation belonging to what is 

 their own, while it blinds them to the most prominent beauties in the property of their neighbors." 

 (Stewart's Essa//s, p. 4SS.) 



7175. Appropriation, or such an arrangement as shall, either in reality or appearance, render all, or the 

 greater part of what we see from a country-seat our own, is a consequence of personal associations. The 

 simplest way of eflrecting this, is by shutting out all objects which do not correspond with the idea, by 

 means ofv/alls or plantations. A more refined mode is, by harmonising the scenery ; by adopting some 

 of the forms, colors, and arrangements in our own territory (6769.), which appear in those of our neigh, 

 bors, as seen from the house, or some particular points of view. According to Wheatley, " one property 

 of a riding is to extend the idea of a seat, and appropriate a whole country to the mansion." For this 

 liurpose, he requires the road of the riding to be different from common roads in form and preservation, 

 and distinguished by accompaniments borrowed from a park or garden, &c. Knight strongly objects to 

 appropriation, and ridicules certain attempts of this sort, made by placing the family arms on the inns 

 and public-houses of the neighborhood, and on " stones with distances," as, he savs, was recommended 

 by one improver. Girardin also objects to the principle ; but Repton, and we believe, almost every other 

 professional man, finds it a very principal object of attention. Kepton defines appropriation to be, " that 

 command over the landscape visible from the windows, which denotes it to be private property belonging 

 to the place." " A view from a London house into a square or into the parks maybe cheerful and beau- 

 tiful, but it wants appropriation ; it wants that charm which only belongs to ownership — the exclusive 

 right of enjoj'ment, with the power of refusing that others should share our pleasure. The most romantic 

 spot, the most picturesque situations, and the most delightful assem.blage of nature's choicest materials, 

 will not long engage our interest without some appropriation; something we can call our own ; and, if 

 not our own property, at least that may be endeared to us by calling it our own home." {Fraginents of 

 Landscape-Gardening, p. 206.) This envie de s'arrondir seems to have existed, and the proximity and 

 intermixture of property to have been felt as an evil among landed proprietors from the earliest ages. 

 Ahab desired the field of Naboth, that he might convert it to a garden of herbs (or flower-garden), 

 because it was near to his house ; and Manuel, the attorney, says to his patron, •— 



" ^^Tiat course take you 



(With your good patience,) to hedge in the manor 

 Of yotir neighbor. Master Frugal f As 'tis said. 

 He will not sell, nor borrow, nor exchange ; 

 And his land h ing in the midst of yours. 



Is a foul blemish." Massikc-er. Nerv Waifto pay Old Debts, Act 2. Scene 1. 



" I stick still in the inn of a hired house," writes the amiable Cowley to Evelyn, " without that plea> 

 santest work of human industry, the improvement of something which we can caU our own." 



Sect. II. Of the Beauties of Landscape-Gardening, considered as an imitative Art, and of 

 the Principles of their Pi-oduction. 



7176. The chief object of cdl the imitative arts is the pj-oduction of natural or universal 

 beauty. Music, poetiy, and painting, are the principal imitative arts ; to these has been 

 latelv added landscape-gardening, an art which has for its object the production of 

 landscapes by combinations of the actual materials of nature, as landscape-painting has 

 for its object their imitation by combinations of colors. Landscape-gardening has been 

 said " to realise whatever the fancy of the painter has imagined" (Girardin) ; and, " to 

 create a scenery more pure, more harmonious, and more expressive, than any that is to 

 be found in nature herself." [Alison.) Such are Alison's ideas of the powers of this art ; 

 and such appear, in some degree, to have been those of Wheatley and Girardin. A more 

 correct idea of its capacities, in our opinion, is suggested by the remark of Lord Wal- 



