LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



217 



laying-out and improvement of gromids^ suggests some 

 considerations worthy of attention. Sir Walter Scott, 

 in an interesting paper reprinted from the Quarterly 

 Review, in his miscellaneous works^, disapproves of its 

 being called Gardening ia any sense. "The art/' he 

 says, "has been unfortunately named. The idea of its 

 being, after all, a variety of the gardening art, with 

 which it has Kttle or nothing to do, has given a mecha- 

 nical turn to the whole profession, and certainly encou- 

 raged many persons to practise it with no greater quali- 

 fications than ought to be found in a tolerably skilful 

 gardener." [Prose Works, vol. xxi. p. 104.) In these 

 observations there is undeniably some truth ; though it 

 may be urged on the other hand, that a gardener is as 

 likely to be a successful designer as the forester, the 

 bailiff,- or the road surveyor, or even the amatem', to 

 whom the work is occasionally entrusted. Unquestionably 

 the artist employed iu this department ought to have a 

 special and professional training; but it may also be 

 asked. Is not the other part of the title Landscape 

 Gardening a little too ambitious, and does it not proceed 

 on an analogy calculated to mislead, and therefore to 

 disappoint ? It is well known that the expounders of 

 this branch of art have adopted some of the principles 

 and employed very much the language of painting. 

 The artist in our department is supposed to create a 

 landscape in living nature just as the painter creates one 

 on canvas. The comparison thus instituted between the 

 two arts, implies that there are certain resemblances 

 between them; but if there are resemblances, it is no 

 less certain that there are differences. A brief conside- 

 ration of these harmonizing and antagonistic points may 

 afford us some light, and will enable us to make most 



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