140 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



It is a difficult task to write something interesting and useful about 

 thirty views, many of which chiefly depend for their charm on the 

 natural beauty of a southern county renowned for its landscapes 

 rather than upon the clearance of brambles and undergrowth that has 

 opened up the foreground. 



It is when we come to scenes in the beautiful Heath Garden and 

 by the lakeside that we find the more valuable hints for the develop- 

 ment of ground suitable for such plantings. As a souvenir of beautiful 

 Gravetye, and the many fine views so wisely opened out by its owner, 

 the book is a delightful possession. 



" The Art of Landscape Architecture : its Development and its 

 Application to Modern Landscape Gardening." By Samuel Parsons. 

 8vo. 347 pp. (Putnam, New York and London, 1915.) §3.50 net. 



The main object of this book is to show by quotations from experts 

 and poets, past and present, how landscape gardening has developed, 

 built up as it has been upon the experience and observation of bygone 

 artists. It teaches how study of Nature and the best examples are 

 necessary before successful work can be accomplished. Only very 

 lightly are formal gardens touched upon, for the author deals with 

 park-like grounds usually known in Europe as " jardins anglais," of 

 which the " Petit Trianon " is a good example. 



Milton may well be considered as the precursor of this " natural 

 style," for his " Paradise Lost," although written about the time when 

 the formality of Versailles was being developed, shows clearly the fore- 

 shadowing of change in fashion, which was bound to follow. This 

 return to natural planting was further assisted by accounts of Chinese 

 landscape gardening sent home about 1690 by the Jesuit Father 

 Attiret and his fellow missionaries. Rousseau, Pope, and many others 

 took up the same ideas, which later on Repton and Prince Puckler 

 lent careful study to until this Fine Art reached the artistic success 

 of modern days. 



Perhaps Mr. Parsons' high ambitions for future Garden Craft are 

 best expressed by Benedetto Croce, who says : " He is a true poet 

 (landscape architect) who feels himself at once bound to his predecessors 

 and free, conservative, and revolutionary, like Homer, Dante, and 

 Shakespeare, who receive into themselves centuries of history, of 

 thought and poetry, and add to those centuries something that is the 

 present, and will be the future ; charges du passe, gros de I'avenir." 



It is inspiriting to find a place of honour given to the theories of 

 Repton and Prince Puckler, because their views are yet insufficiently 

 known by many who profess to be good gardeners. 



Other important points that are dwelt upon are a careful considera- 

 tion of the rights and desires of the public in the arrangement of 

 Public Parks, the national requirements too which lead to such grounds 

 being designed so that they exercise potent and vivifying influence 

 upon the mind. The author emphasizes the advantages of " careful 

 maintenance." Through persistent exercise of this alone the original 



