434 



PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. 



BOOK I. 



The pleasure ground may consist of scenes of different 

 expressions of avowed art, as those of gardening ; and of nature, 

 as those of picturesque improvement, such as tranquil or se- 

 questered glades, romantic glens, flowery meads, furzy heaths*, 

 tangled dingles, wooded dells, rocky steeps, and numberless 

 others which are to be met with in a varied or picturesque coun- 

 try, and are either to be heightened in effect, or preserved from 

 cultivation, by the improver. Wherever the pleasure ground 

 is not under some of the particular scenes of ornamental gar- 

 dening, it should be fed, at least by sheep, and often by horses, 

 cattle, &c. which should be allowed to come close to the terrace 

 wall that separates the lawn from the mansion. The same ought 

 to take place in the park front of the mansion ; for what can be 

 more dull and unnatural, than the modern method of surround- 

 ing a house by a naked lawn totally destitute of animation? 



all those not absorbed in the vortex of fashion ; the votaries of which pass through 

 life tickled or amused, so to speak, but never enjoying any real pleasure, and to- 

 tally dead to what in a wild country, among simple peasantry " All things give 

 and all express, 



" Content and rural happiness." 



* In a design which I made for increasing the pleasure-ground or picturesque 

 scenery at Ashton, I proposed preserving upwards of two acres of a rocky heathy 

 common in its then state, and to be surrounded by irregular groups and masses of 

 Scotch firs, thorns, and furze. This scheme met the approbation of the proprietor, 

 and is, I suppose, carrying into execution. A wild heath was deemed by Lord Bacon 

 one of the requisites of a perfect garden ; and this, no doubt, from feeling the ex- 

 quisite effect of wildness. The remains of this heath still exist at his seat near 

 St. Alban's. 



