Book IV. 



BEAUTIES OF LANDSCAPE-GARDENING. 



99D 



pole, when he represents it as *' proud of no other art than that of softening nature's 

 harshness, and copying her graceful touch." It has also been said, that it is " to poetry 

 and painting, what the reality is to the representation." (^Girardin.) But experience 

 proves, that the former (the reality) is always exceeded by the latter, both in respect to 

 natural and picturesque beauty. Suppose, for example, any given variety of ground, 

 rocks, and distance, as the basis to be furnished with wood, water, and buildings ; the 

 rocks shown, or concealed, as the gardener may wish, or as the genius of the place may 

 require, and every otiier purpose effected, which is in the power of gardening to perform. 

 When all this is done, it will be a scene greatly inferior in beauty to the imitative cre- 

 ation of a painter from the same groundwork and materials ; or, let there be a natural 

 landscape, either of mediocrity or of any given beauty, with every circumstance so 

 arranged, as to be alike suitable for both arts ; and let a painter and a gardener, each 

 attempt to copy it according to their art, with or without pennission, to improve its 

 beauties. Which of the two imitations would be most beautiful, considered in the 

 abstract, and without reference to any selfish or arbitrary association ? Decidedly, in our 

 opinion, the production of the painter. In short, no comparison between the powers of 

 landscape-painting and those of landscape-gardening can be instituted, that will not 

 evince the superior powers of the former art. Tlie great source of the beauty of every 

 verdant landscape is wood ; and so much of the beauty of all woods depends on acci- 

 dental circumstances, in their progress from the time of planting, till they attain a con- 

 siderable age, and which circtnnstances cannot be said practically to be under the control 

 of the gardener, that however high our aim, however we may study the natural efiects of 

 time, and however correctly we may imitate them, at the end of all our labors, any wood 

 of art will always be far inferior to a v/ood of nature under the same circumstances. For 

 further illustrations, we have only to appeal to such painters as have made landscape 

 their particular study, and who certainly must be considered in this case as the best 

 judges with regard to scenic truth or picturesque beauty. 



7177. To lohat kind or degree, of beciuly then, can lands-caj^e-gardening aspire ? To this 

 we answer, that, abstracted from all relations of utility and design, it can seldom succeed 

 in producing any thing higher than picturesque beauty, or such a harmonious mixture of 

 forms, colors, lights, and shades, as will be grateful to the sight of men in general ; and 

 to such, more particularly, as have made this beauty in some degree their study. This 

 harmonious assemblage of objects may be grateful and agreeable, without being accom- 

 panied by any, or at all events, by much general expression ; for example, of gaiety, 

 inelancholy, grandeur, simplicity, or elegance ; but it may also combine one or more of 

 these poetic or general beauties in a high degree, and this, too, with or without being 

 picturesque. It may recall many other pleasurable emotions, if we admit the consider- 

 ations of fitness, novelty, or its contrast to surrounding scenery, and utility or its adapt- 

 ation to man. Such is our opinion of the capacities of landscape-gardening. If it is 

 lower than that of some authors and artists, we can only say, that it has been formed 

 from the observation and experience of what actually takes place. The artist may and 

 ought to aim at the highest degree of beauty, which his own imagination, the genius of 

 the place, and the views of the owner, will admit of; but let him not proceed with, or 

 hold out to the world, mistaken views of what his art can and cannot perform. 



7178. The principles of iynitative landscape-gaj^dening, in that view of this term Avhich 

 limits it to *' the art of creating landscapes of pictui-esque beauty ;" we consider with 

 Girardin, Price, Knight, and other authors, to be those of painting ; and in viewing it 

 as adding to picturesque beauty some other natural expression, as of grandeur, decay, 

 melancholy, &c. we consider it, with Pope, Warton, Gray, and Eustace, as requiring, 

 both in the designer and observer, the aid of poetic mind ; that is, of a mind conversant 

 in all these different emotions, or pleasures of imagination, which are called up by cer- 

 tain signs of affecting or interesting qualities, furnished by sounds, motion, buildings, 

 and other objects. 



7179. If taking a third view of imitative landscape-gardening, as " the art of laying out 

 the grounds of a country-residence,^^ then, with popular opinion, we comprehend under the 

 term all the above beauties, with those of relative beauty, the principles of which have 

 been the subject of the preceding section. The principles of landscape-gardening then, 

 as an imitative art, we conclude to be derived from nature, as developed by the prin- 

 ciples of landscape-painting ; and, as recognised by poetic mind, or a mind alive to those 

 general beauties or associations universally felt in civilised society. We consider this, 

 perhaps to many a tedious developeraent of the principles of landscape-gardening, called 

 for by the vague and indefinite manner in which they are spoken of by authors, no less 

 than by artists ; and, as a proof of this, we refer our readers to the volumes of the late 

 Repton, who, whatever may be the merits of his practical taste, has certainly, when- 

 ever he has touched on the subject of principles, written in a very unsatisfactory manner. 

 To those who are conversant with the literature of landscape-gardening, it must appear a 

 very gratuitous task to write a book " with a view of establishing fixed principles" in the 



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