PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



xlvii 



be brought to believe that the latter is to be attained without 

 any trouble to themselves. Uneducated foresters or self-suf- 

 ficient gardeners might, therefore, be set to work by them, to 

 practise, or more probably to improve, upon the preservative 

 method ; and thus what was begun in indolence or ignorance, 

 would, in all likelihood, end in vexation and disappointment. 

 But it is to the imjperfection of the system^ and not to their own 

 unskilfalness, that such operators would be sm-e to ascribe an 

 unfavourable issue. 



In order to remedy, as far as may be, these evils, whether 

 present or prospective, I have, at the desire of several English 

 friends, endeavoured to get the art taken up in a jprofessional 

 way, by persons of good education, properly instructed. Those 

 persons, it is proposed, shall assume the general name of 

 Ornamental Planters, and be competent to teach the art of 

 " giving immediate effect to wood," whether in principle or 

 practice. Each shall be attended by two skilful workmen or 

 operatives, who have been trained at this place ; and by visit- 

 ing different parts of the island, as their services may be 

 required, both gentlemen themselves, and their gardeners, will 

 soon become masters of a system which, how carefully soever 

 it may be delineated in description, can never be so thoroughly 

 apprehended as by real practice. 



Of such planters it is imagined that two in number might 

 suffice in the beginning. One would, in all probability, find 

 employment in this kingdom, and in the northern counties of 

 England, in the parallel of Yorkshire; and one more in the 

 districts south of the Trent, from which my principal visitors 

 have lately come. Care shall be taken that the planters be 

 instructed in the anatomy of plants, and vegetable physiology ; 

 and I should be ambitious that an acquaintance with the 

 execution, as well as the principles of landscape, were added to 

 those necessary acquirements. This, it is conceived, would 

 give to the new profession somewhat of that mterest and 

 elegance which belongs to all effects produced chiefly by wood. 

 It would throw a character in some sort doiibly creative over 

 the whole undertaking, as it would enable the artist to sketch 

 beforehand with his pencil such pictures as he could afterwards 



