138 
REVIEWS. 
Sir Uvcdale Price on the Picturesque. Edited by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart. In one 
Volume, 8vo, beautifully illustrated by Sixty Engravings, designed and drawn on the 
Wood by Montague Stanley, R. S. A. Orr & Co. 
Landscape gardening, though one of the finest of all the fine arts, requires to 
be studied with such intense devotion, that hardly one in twenty of those who 
practise it, ever attain to a correct knowledge of its leading principles. Those who 
have travelled much or little through the country, noticed the chief features of 
some of the finest places, and assisted, to a greater or less extent, in the practical 
effectuation of plans, generally imagine themselves capable of improving the land- 
scape in gardens ; and, moved by a powerful impulse to be always doing something, 
are constantly introducing or suggesting alterations, which, if not in direct opposi- 
tion to the rules of taste, are rarely free from glaring faults. Others again, who 
are well grounded in all that elementary learning which is so essential to the 
landscape gardener, have frequently had too few opportunities of observation or 
practice ; and hence, are apt to sacrifice convenience and propriety, in order to 
produce a generally great and striking effect. 
It is scarcely necessary to point out that extensive observation and experience 
should be combined with the other requisite acquirements to form a good garden 
artist. But it is with the last that we have now to deal. An art that associates, 
in itself, the elements of poetry, painting, sculpture, and architecture, or collects 
materials from each or all of these to enhance the interest of its creations, cannot 
be expected to be properly carried into use unless its professors have a tolerable 
acquaintance with those related subjects. Nor can metaphysics be well excluded 
from the list of requirements ; for, while we would not insist on a profound intimacy 
with its abstract laws, how can those who seek to impress and please the human 
mind, beyond mere superficialities, hope to accomplish this without knowing more 
of the workings and propensities of that mind than is to be obtained from casual 
notices of daily life ? Such notices could be of no value except as they are syste- 
matized and concentrated into principles ; and a whole life might be spent to 
comparatively little purpose in the process, whereas more ample information is 
within every one's reach in books. It must not be conceived, however, that we 
undervalue observation. Pursued with the assistance of the best authors, it is of 
immense use ; but it needs the guidance, direction, and modification of scientific 
writers. 
These remarks on the necessity of laying a firm foundation in established 
principles may be briefly brought to bear more immediately on the work before us. 
Many terms are known to be employed by which the different styles of ornamental 
gardening are designated. There is the trim, artificial, or geometrical system, 
