PREFACE. 



xi 



ferent styles of improvement, they also serve, by a mere in- 

 spection of them, to characterize the nature of that part of the 

 improvements proposed which regard picturesque effect. Such 

 are Plates VII. VIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XXIII. with their 

 contrasts, and also the other plates placed together at the 

 end of Vol. II. All these, except Plates VII. and VIII. are 

 taken from nature ; and though it would be next to ridiculous 

 to say, that every particular must be done exactly as shewn in 

 them, yet the general style of the alterations can never be mis- 

 taken for that of modern gardening. In opposing these im- 

 proved views to those of the scene in its previous state, it would 

 have been easy to have rendered the beauties of the one and 

 the defects of the other much more striking, by finishing the 

 one engraving more than the other. But this I have uniformly 

 avoided, as a trick unworthy of science. Neither have I ever 

 used slides in Mr. Repton's manner, to which I have the same 

 objections*. But I wish it particularly to be remarked, that I 

 have not in any case given a fictitious age and form to the trees 

 in these drawings, as is commonly done. In them, as in every 

 part of the work, a rigid adherence to truth is observed. 



I now submit this work to the reader, with that confidence 

 which arises from a strong experimental conviction, that the 



* See Appendix, No. I. 



