110 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



practice, — it is the model upon which I 

 venture to recommend the irregular and 

 varied form of planting, in preference to the 

 regular and monotonous oval and circle. Surely 

 Art, in administering to the embellishment 

 of a park, would seek in vain to borrow from 

 the scenery around her an authority for the 

 oval and the circle. If, therefore, she ob- 

 trudes these forms, she no longer owns the 

 supremacy of Nature; but stands condemned, 

 by the above definition, as an handmaid de- 

 void of all propriety and taste in pinning 

 upon her mistress's sylvan attire the orna- 

 ments that belong to her robes of state and 

 splendour. 



It would appear that the predilection for 

 ovals and circles arises from a too confined 

 view of the subject among its advocates. 

 Their great admiration of curved and flowing 

 lines prevents their investigation as to the 

 propriety of their application ; but if judi- 

 cious selection be a leading feature of good 

 taste, it is not easy to see how an application 

 totally foreign to the subject can have any 

 foundation on that quality. Let the author 

 of the Planter's Guide spend a day amidst 

 the splendid scenery of the New Forest, or 



