PREFACE. 



it 



residences ever referred to as the only examples of faults or 

 beauties ; but merely as those which more immediately occur- 

 red to the author at the time of writing. 



Both kinds of references became necessary, not only as illus- 

 trations of my principles, but as tests of their truth and prac- 

 ticability. And I may add, that in some instances it is done to 

 silence and set at defiance a certain class of men, who are ever 

 ready in theory to coincide with such principles as may be 

 deemed new or excellent; while by their practice they shew 

 that they neither understand nor feel the force of such 

 principles. 



I may remark here, that where I use the word improver in 

 the following pages, I as commonly allude to such as direct the 

 operations upon their own grounds as to professors. When I 

 use the term Designer, or Landscape Gardener, I of course 

 allude to Professors. If when speaking of them, generally, 

 I have occasionally used strong language, it must be attri- 

 buted to two causes ; in the first place, to the general obsti- 

 nacy and dogmatical manner in which Mr. Brown's - disciples, 

 and those who may be called geometrical architects*, give 



* I mean those who never consider picturesque effect, and the harmony of the 

 building with the situation, but do every thing by geometrical elevations, without 

 any reference to surrounding SGcnerj^. 



