50 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



SO attractive, so captivating to the imagination as well as 

 the senses, the taste for it would soon be spread among 

 her continental neighbours. It was justly remarked by 

 Walpole,''^" a very accurate observer, that our style in this 

 new art would never, in all likelihood, be brought into 

 general use among those nations. The expense being 

 suited only to the opulence of a free country, it is there 

 alone that emulation could reign among a number of 

 independent individuals. The little princes of Germany, 

 he observes, who spare no cost on their palaces and 

 country residences, would be themselves likely to become 

 our imitators, especially as their country and climate bear 

 in many respects an intimate resemblance to our own. 



It is now about threescore years since Walpole wrote, 

 and it is remarkable how well his anticipations have been 

 verified. While the French in general have little culti- 

 vated landscape gardening, a real taste for it has by 

 degrees extended itself aU over Germany, Hungary, Poland, 

 and the northern parts of Europe. From this observation 

 respecting France, I except, of course, a few places in the 

 neighbourhood of Paris, which have been laid out in a 

 superior way, in imitation of the English style — such as 

 Arnouville, Courances, Mar^eau, Chantilly, and above 

 all Ermenonville, the pride of French gardening, f The 

 rest are such examples as Frenchmen might be expected 

 to produce of an art which, in its character, is essentially 

 and radically English. 



The remarks of Walpole may, in a great measure, be 

 applied to the art of giving immediate effect to wood, as 

 being one of the most important accessories to that of 

 creating or improving real landscape. Since the time of 

 Louis XIV., there is no reason to think that transplant- 



* Anecdotes of Painting in England, vol. iv. 



t Hirschfeld, Theoric der Gartenkunst, Band v. p. 258—267, &c. 



