PREFACE. XXV 



I AM fenfible the humble flile of this work mny rendcj- it 

 obnoxious to fomc of the many Critics with which thib age 

 abounds, who may clifphiy their learning, if not ill-nature, at 

 my expence, though ignorant of the fubjecSl on which I treat. 

 To the corre(5lion of the fenfible and candid I will patiently fab- 

 mit, and endeavour to improve myfelf from their obfervations : 

 But the partial and fnarling fpecies of them, I hold in the great- 

 eft contempt ; for as fuch can neither affe(5l my intereft nor re- 

 putation, they lhall be unable to ruilie my temper. I acknow- 

 ledge myfelf incapable of adorning my fubje^l with the beauties 

 of language, or, if I were, fliould I be very follicitous about it : 

 For though I have reafon to believe this fimple Treatife will be 

 admitted into many libraries, both of the Great and Learned, yet 

 if the principles of culture on which I proceed are juft, their 

 politenefs and humanity will excufe other delects ; to which I 

 muft add, that it is far from being intended for fuch alone, 

 but no lefs to inflrucl the ignorant and illiterate gardener 

 (to whom the plaineft language is furely the befl) in fuch 

 pracSlices as will improve our plantations, both in point of beau- 

 ty and profit. I have not ventured hov/ever on this publication, 

 without the approbation of feveral Gentlemen of candour, learn- 

 ing, and knowledge in Gardening, — and by them I have been 

 perfuaded to give it to the Public in my own homely drefs, 

 wherein alone it now appears, and which is the more agreeable 

 to me, as I have ever thought, that even the difguife of another 

 man's language is a kind of impofition on the world, and that 

 it is but juft to publifli one's own fentiments in one's own way. 



I SHALL only further intimate to thol'e (if any fuch there be) 

 who feel themfelves fore from what I have written, that no 



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