1014 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



such as can be quar- 

 ried in forms suitable 

 for building may be 

 procured, grand et^ 

 fects may be pro- 

 duced ; either by 

 using them in form- 

 ing imitations of na- 

 ture, or by combin- 

 ing them in a mixed 

 style of artificial form 

 and natural conglo- 

 meration. (^g.704.) 



Sect. V. Buildings. 



7232. Buildings, as materials of scenery, are entirely under the power of man j and, 

 from that circumstance, were carried to an unwarrantable excess in the decline of the 

 ancient, and the infancy of the modem style. Improvements on ground are forgotten 

 by their effect ; that of planting may be accounted too distant or too slow by ordinary 

 minds ; but a building is complete the moment it is finished. It afibrds immediate 

 satisfaction to the owner ; and being known as a costly object, full credit is given to him 

 for the expense incurred. Thus wealth, confiding in its powers, multiplied garden- 

 buildings to an excess, which ended in creating a disgust, stiU existing, in some degree, 

 at their appearance in improved scenery. Before proceeding further, it may be proper 

 to offer some remarks on the style or architecture of buildings, 



7233. It is a common error to consider nothing as architecture but what u Grecian ; to 

 fancy that all architecture must have what are called orders ; and to consider the Gothic, 

 Chinese, or Hindoo modes of building, as mere barbarous compositions. But nothing 

 can be more unphilosophical than this mode of viewing the subject ; and it may just as 

 well be said that there is no true language in the world but the Greek ; that every lan- 

 guage ought to correspond with it in the tenses and moods of the verbs ; and that every 

 other mode of speech is mere jargon. A style of building, and mode of oral communi- 

 cation, must have a sufficient claim to be considered as complete, when they answer the 

 purposes for which they are intended ; and, applying this principle to the architecture 

 and language of different countries, we shall find that each is complete relatively to 

 those countries. That any style of building, or any language can be universally suitable, 

 is to suppose that the same climate and the same degree of civilisation prevails over the 

 whole globe. Thus, as there are different languages, and different manners and customs, 

 so there are different styles of architecture ; and though we may prefer the Grecian, as 

 having been used by the most refined nations of antiquity, let us not hastily reject every 

 other style as devoid of congruity, or unsuitable for being applied fo constructions of use 

 or beauty. 



7234. TJie origin of the different styles of architectttre are usually traced to imitations of 

 temporary structures formed of timber or of rough trees ; and thus the Grecian column, 

 with its capital ornamented with foliage, has been called an imitation of the trunk of a 

 palm, with the petioles of its recently dropped leaves still adhering ; the Gothic arches 

 and tracery have been likened to wicker-work, or the intersecting branches of an avenue ; 

 and the Chinese style to the imitation of a tent supported by bamboo. But the imitation 

 "of nature is the last thing that occurs in the progress of improvement ; and though the 

 above opinions may not be without their use as a sort of hypothesis for composition ; yet 

 it appears much more probable 



that styles of building have taken 705 

 their origin, jointly from the ma- 

 terials the country afforded, and 



the wants of the people. Ac- 

 cording to this hypothesis, the 

 Grecian may be considered 

 founded on the use of planks of 

 stone, in the same way as beams of timber (Jig. 705. a) ; the Gothic, by the use of small 

 stones, held together by their position (b) ; and the Hindoo, by the use of small stones, 

 held together by superincumbent weight (c). The Doric temple (Jig. 706.) is easily 

 traced in this way to its prototype of wood ; but though the idea be supported by the 

 aiithority of Vitruvius, it should never be considered as any thing more than mere 

 conjecture. 



7235. The progress which architecture has made in Britain, in modern times, is matter 

 of greater certainty ; and Repton, vdth his usual taste, has furnished an ingenious 



