foreground by the greatest painters. When 

 the walk before the door is of gravel, and 

 that gravel is succeeded by the mowed grass 

 of the pleasure ground, and that again by 

 the grass of the lawn, nothing can be more 

 insipid : if broken by trees and shrubs only, 

 however judiciously they may be disposed, 

 still the whole makes a comparatively flat 

 and unvaried foreground, whether it be 

 viewed in looking at, from, or towards the 

 house. But when architectural ornaments 

 are introduced in the garden immediately 

 about the house — however unnatural raised 

 terraces, fountains, flights of steps, parapets, 

 with statues, vases, balustrades, &c. may be 

 called — Aiowever our ancestors may have 

 l>een laughed at (and I was much diverted, 

 though not at ah convinced by the ridicule) 

 for " walking up and down stairs in the open 

 air,"* — the effect* of all those objects is very 

 striking ; and they are not more unnatural 

 that is not more artificial, than the houses 

 which they are intended to accompany. 



,* Mr. Walpole on Modern Gardening. 



