105 
PARK AND VILLA SCENERY. 
There is nothing which confers more beauty upon a country than the appropriate 
decoration of selected portions of ground ; and this it is which stamps the peculiar 
character of British Scenery. We pretend not to enter into the science or minutise 
of the Picturesque ; but it cannot be irrelevant to devote a few pages to the consider- 
ation of subjects connected with trees, and their adaptation to certain localities set 
apart for the purposes of ornament, In so doing, not only will reference be made 
to acknowledged authority, but recourse will be had to examples which may be con- 
sidered as models worthy of more general imitation. 
In the present instance, we select a pattern from an estate of very high preten- 
sions; and though prohibited, by motives of delicacy, from individualising the 
property, our readers may rely upon the general correctness of description, 
We shall have frequent occasion to allude to particular trees, and therefore — in 
full conformity with the avowed object of this periodical — the botanical characters of 
each will not be overlooked. Their effect in the picturesque, whether as single 
objects, or in composition as groups, must be deemed paramount ; and here we may 
pertinently cite the authority of the Rev. William Gilpin — a writer whose works 
ought to be in the hands of every gentleman who professes to be an admirer of 
rural scenery. 
"Picturesque ideas," he says, "lie not in the common road of genius and 
learning. They require, perhaps, a distinct faculty to comprehend them- — at least, 
they require more attention to the scenes of nature and the rules of art than men of 
letters in general, unless stimulated by a peculiar inclination, bestow upon them : 
such men, therefore, are improper judges." 
The choice of a situation whereon to create a great place is an affair of consider- 
able moment. This is not at the command of many ; and if we were to lay stress 
upon the opinion of the late Mr. Loudon, it might nearly amount to an impossibility. 
He said, that " it is on situations considerably elevated, and at the same time varied 
on the surface, that the art of Landscape Gardening can affect the imagination ; and 
without operating on the imagination, no work of this art, or of any other, can ever 
be worth notice as such. No man of good taste will ever make choice of a low, flat, 
dull, sleepy situation, and a rich loamy soil for a country residence." 
In searching for a model whereupon to form an estimate of what must be con- 
sidered a fine property, well arranged in all its parts, we are tempted to select an 
estate which we have visited, and may be said to have gone over ; thus acquiring a 
personal knowledge of its construction and laying out, sufficient to verify a printed 
description that is faithful in its detail. 
Originally, the land in the greater part of its site was what might have been 
called a poor heath ; that is to say, there was heath-soil (peat, so called) at the 
VOL. XIII. — NO. cxlix. p 
