prevail; that, instead of the narrow mechani- 

 cal practice of a few English gardeners, the 

 noble and varied works of the eminent 

 painters of every age and of every coun- 

 try, and those of their supreme mistress 

 Nature, should be the great models of 

 imitation. 



If a taste for drawing and painting and 

 a knowledge of their principles, made a 

 part of every gentleman's education ; if 

 instead of hiring a professed improver to 

 torture his grounds after an established 

 model, each improved his own place ac- 

 cording to general conceptions drawn from 

 nature and pictures, or from hints which 

 favourite masters in painting;, or favourite 

 parts of nature suggested to him, there 

 might in time be a great variety in the 

 styles of improvement, and all of them 

 with peculiar excellencies. No two pain- 

 ters ever saw nature with the same eyes ; 

 they tended to one point by a thousand 

 different routes, and that makes the charm 

 of an acquaintance with their various 

 modes of conception and execution ; but 



