THEIR GENERAL ARRANGEMENT, &c. 



605 



with such gardens when kept up accord- 

 ing to their original design. Those, on 

 the other hand, who may wish for an 

 addition of more varied and picturesque 

 circumstances, will find them in many of 

 those old gardens, wherever they have 

 been neglected ; for the same causes which 

 give a picturesque character to buildings, 

 give it also to architectural gardens." It 

 has been the fashion of late years to con- 

 demn the ancient or geometrical style, 

 and to laud and hold up the natural or 

 English style as the beau-ideal of perfec- 

 tion. The former has been almost rooted 

 out, that the latter might be introduced 

 in its stead ; and this too often without 

 due consideration as to local circumstances 

 and situation. If landscape gardening 

 be really an imitative art, the productions 

 of the artist will be most effective where 

 there is a striking contrast between his 

 production and that of the natural scenery 

 which surrounds it. Hence Chatsworth, 

 with its splendid palace and rich Italian 

 and geometric gardens, is well placed, 

 because it has the wildest natural scenery 

 in its vicinity, which acts as a foil or 

 contrast to it ; whereas, had the mansion 

 been devoid of architectural pretensions, 

 and the grounds laid out in the natural 

 style, that contrast would have been want- 

 ing, and all the power of man would have 

 only produced an imitation, when com- 

 pared with that of nature around him, 

 truly puerile and ridiculous. For, as Qua- 

 tremere de Quincy observes, the avowed 

 object of modern landscape-gardening is 

 merely an imitation of nature, in nature's 

 own materials. It attempts nothing more 

 than the repetition of what already exists ; 

 whereas, in the ancient or geometric style, 

 nature is not represented in a fac-simile 

 manner ; ground, wood, and water, the 

 three natural elements of the art, all un- 

 dergo a kind of polish or remodelling by 

 the artist's hand, which removes his pro- 

 duction farther from nature than those of 

 the modern style, and thus elevates the 

 former above the latter, and ranks it, to a 

 certain extent, as a branch of the fine arts. 



Gilpin, one of our best landscape-gar- 

 deners, in speaking of the Gothic innova- 

 tion upon the geometrical style, remarks 

 — " The modern system throws down the 

 walls, terraces, steps, and balustrades at 

 " one fell sweep," and exposes every recess 

 of retirement, every nook of comfort, to 



the blast, and to the public gaze; the 

 approach invades the precincts of the 

 garden, which now, in spotty distinctness, 

 is spread over a space cleared of every 

 vestige of intricacy and repose, while a 

 sunk fence excludes the cattle from that 

 lawn which is apparently open to them, 

 or the flimsy barrier of an iron hurdle 

 is attached to a building whose ivyed 

 battlements have witnessed the lapse of 

 ages. What compensation, then, does the 

 modern system offer for the destruction 

 of all comfort 1 " And Sir Uvedale Price, 

 who was himself one of the reformers, and 

 played his part in bringing about the new 

 system, admits his error in having sacri- 

 ficed an old garden, in his over zeal, and 

 lived to write his own confession of the 

 barbarous act. " I may perhaps," he says, 

 " have spoken more feelingly on this sub- 

 ject, from having done myself what I do 

 condemn in others — destroyed an old- 

 fashioned gardeu. I have long regretted 

 its destruction. I destroyed it, not from 

 disliking it ; on the contrary, it was a 

 sacrifice I made, against my own sensa- 

 tions, to the prevailing opinion." 



" No scenery, or object of any kind, can 

 be prized by human nature, without re- 

 ference to some ideas associated in the 

 mind. Natural scenery, however beautiful, 

 w T here it is the only scenery of a country, 

 can never be admired by the inhabitants 

 as such, without reference to some ideas 

 already existing in their minds, and which 

 they may have obtained from reading, 

 or from studying the art of sketching- 

 landscapes. A country wholly composed 

 of natural scenery, can never exhibit those 

 great contrasts produced by art, which are 

 found in a country where natural scenery 

 prevails, and artificial scenery is only 

 occasionally met with ; or in one where 

 artificial scenery abounds, and natural 

 scenery is of rare occurrence. The scenery 

 which is comparatively rare, in either case, 

 whether natural or artificial, will be con- 

 sidered as the most beautiful, and as indi- 

 cating wealth and refinement in those 

 who possess it. It thus appears that the 

 claim, both of the ancient and modern 

 styles, to be reckoned as fine arts, is 

 entirely relative — not depending on any 

 quality of their own, but on their scarcity 

 or abundance, relatively to the general 

 surface of the country in which they exist. 



" It has been observed that, of the two 



