THEIR GENERAL ARRANGEMENT, &c. 



607 



says, "It appears that what constitutes 

 the chief excellence of the old garden, is 

 richness of decoration and effect, and an 

 agreement with the same qualities in 

 architecture as the mansion : its defects 

 are stiffness and formality. The excel- 

 lences of the modern garden are verdure, 

 undulation of ground, diversity of plants, 

 and a more varied and natural disposition 

 of them than had hitherto been practised ; 

 its defects, when considered as accom- 

 panying architecture, a uniformity of 

 character too nearly approaching nature ; 

 when considered as improved natural 

 scenery, a want of that playful variety of 

 outline, by which beautiful scenes in 

 nature are eminently distinguished." 



A departure from the rich and artistic 

 Italian style, which had arrived at great 

 perfection towards the end of the seven- 

 teenth century, was forced on this 

 country, strange enough to say, soon 

 afterwards, by a set of political, poetical, 

 and self-interested agitators, who, although 

 vain enough to become partisans in the 

 general demolition, had not sufficient 

 talent of themselves to construct a sub- 

 stitute, but borrowed the ideas of their 

 false conceptions from the Chinese. A 

 love of gardening, as an art of design and 

 taste, must have been at a low ebb about 

 this period ; and it is not improbable that 

 the difference in the expense of construct- 

 ing an Italian garden, and that of one in 

 what has been called the modern, or 

 English style, might have had its share 

 in this crusade, because it suited the 

 poverty and declining taste of the times. 



Some, indeed, have gone so far as to 

 assert that we even had not the merit of 

 either borrowing or inventing it. Mala- 

 carne, an Italian author of credit, claims 

 the invention of what is now called an 

 English garden for Charles Imanuel, first 

 Duke of Savoy, about the end of the 

 sixteenth century. Warton and Eustace 

 are of opinion that the duke's English 

 garden at Padua gave an idea of an 

 English garden prior to that contained in 

 the description of Paradise by Milton the 

 poet, who, by the way, has also been 

 brought forward as a claimant of this 

 invention. Gabriel Thouin, a name well 

 known in horticultural literature, says 

 that the artist Dufresnoy gave a model of 

 a garden in the natural style so early as 

 the commencement of the last century. 



Bcettinger even carries us back for the 

 original idea to the description of the 

 grotto of Calypso by Homer, the vale of 

 Tempe by iElian, and that of Vaucluse 

 by Petrarch. 



In discussing, however, this subject, we 

 may remark that the advocates, both 

 for the modern, or English, and for the 

 picturesque style, do not confine them- 

 selves entirely to the grounds in proximity 

 with the mansion, but include within 

 their range of fancy the whole domain, 

 and much of the surrounding country ; 

 so far, indeed, particularly in the latter 

 style, that it is difficult to say where their 

 garden begins, or where it terminates. 

 Sir Uvedale Price, in Essays on the Pic- 

 turesque, remarks — " What appears to me 

 the great defect of modern gardening, in 

 the confined sense, is exactly what has 

 given them their greatest reputation — an 

 affectation of simplicity, of mere nature 

 — a desire of banishing all embellishments 

 of art, where art ought to be employed, 

 and even in some degree displayed." 

 Taking gardening, therefore, in the con- 

 fined sense above alluded to, we can see 

 no real association between a fine man- 

 sion, and even the best imitations of 

 nature artificially created around its very 

 walls. Wherever architecture, even of 

 the simplest kind, is employed in the 

 dwellings of man, art must be manifest ; 

 and all artificial objects may certainly 

 admit, and in many instances require, the 

 accompaniments of art. The more mag- 

 nificent the mansion, and the richer it is 

 in architectural details, the more sym- 

 metrical and highly adorned with works 

 of art the garden around it should be. 



Every residence of dignity or of archi- 

 tectural pretensions requires accompani- 

 ments of a decorative and substantial 

 character, in conformity with the magni- 

 tude of the design. Terraces, steps, 

 balustrades, vases, fountains, and other 

 architectural embellishments are a neces- 

 sary and universal auxiliary to such 

 mansions. Repose and security, as well 

 as every principle of good taste, demand 

 that those should be effectually and dis- 

 tinctly protected by an architectural or- 

 namental parapet wall. The line of 

 demarcation should be unequivocally 

 defined. And Gilpin, on the same sub- 

 ject, says — " I think it agreeable to good 

 taste that a Grecian, Italian, or any other 



