14 



MANUAL OF GARDENING 



explains the subject admirably. One reason why the picture 

 appeals to us more than the landscape is because the picture 

 is condensed, and the mind becomes acquainted with its entire 

 purpose at once, while the landscape is so broad that the 

 individual objects at first fix the attention, and it is only by a 

 process of synthesis that the unity of the landscape finally be- 

 comes apparent. This is admirably illustrated in photographs. 

 One of the first surprises that the novice experiences in the use 

 of the camera is the discovery that very tame scenes become in- 

 teresting and often even spirited in the photograph. But there 

 is something more than mere condensation in this vitalizing and 

 beautifying effect of the photograph or the painting : individual 

 objects are so much reduced that they no longer appeal to us 

 as distinct subjects, and however uncouth they may be in the 

 reality, they make no impression in the picture; the thin and 

 sere sward may appear rather like a closely shaven lawn or a 

 new-mown meadow. And again, the picture sets a limit to the 

 scene; it frames it, and thereby cuts off all extraneous and con- 

 fusing or irrelevant landscapes. 



These remarks are illustrated in the aesthetics of landscape gar- 

 dening. It is the artist's one desire to make pictures in the land- 

 scape. This is done in two ways : by the form of plantations, 

 and by the use of vistas. He will throw his plantations into 

 such positions that open and yet more or less confined areas 

 of greensward are presented to the observer at various points. 

 This picture-like opening is nearly or quite devoid of small or in- 

 dividual objects, which usually destroy the unity of such areas 

 and are meaningless in themselves. A vista is a narrow opening 

 or view between plantations to a distant landscape. It cuts up 

 the broad horizon into portions that are readily cognizable. It 

 frames parts of the country-side. The verdurous sides of the 

 planting are the sides of the frame ; the foreground is the bottom, 

 and the sky is the top. It is of the utmost importance that 

 good views be left or secured from the best windows of the house 



