352 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING, 
expressive of violence, abrupt action, and 
partial disobedience, a struggling of the idea 
with the substance or the condition of its 
being. The beautiful is an idea of beauty 
calmly and harmoniously expressed ; the pic- 
turesque an idea of beauty or power strongly 
and irregularly expressed. As an example 
of the beautiful in other arts, we refer to the 
Apollo of the "Vatican ; as an example of the 
picturesque, to the Laocoon or the Dying 
Gladiator. In nature we would place before 
the reader a finely formed elm or chestnut, 
whose well balanced head is supported on a 
trunk full of symmetry and dignity, and whose 
branches almost sweep the turf in their rich 
luxuriance ; as a picturesque contrast, some 
pine or larch, whose gnarled roots grasp the 
rocky crag on which it grows, and whose wild 
and irregular branches tell of the storm and 
tempest that it has so often struggled against. 
" In pictures, too, one often hears the beau- 
tiful confounded with the picturesque. Yet 
they are quite distinct ; though in many sub- 
jects they may be found harmoniously com- 
bined. Some of Raphael's angels may be 
taken as perfect illustrations of the beautiful. 
In their serene and heavenly countenances 
we see only that calm and pure existence of 
which perfect beauty is the outward type ; on 
the other hand, Murillo's beggar boys are 
only picturesque. What we admire in them 
(beyond admirable execution) is not their rags 
or their mean apparel, but a certain irregular 
struggling of a better feeling within, against 
this outward poverty of nature and condition. 
" Architecture borrows, partly perhaps by 
association, the same expression. We find 
the beautiful in the most symmetrical edifices, 
built in the finest proportions, and of the 
purest materials. It is, on the other hand, 
in some irregular castle formed for defence, 
some rude mill nearly as wild as the glen 
where it is placed, some thatched cottage, 
weather-stained and moss-covered, that we 
find the picturesque. The Temple of Jupiter 
Olympus, in all its perfect proportions, was 
prized by the Greeks as a model of beauty ; 
we, who see only a few columns and broken 
architraves standing, with all their exquisite 
mouldings obliterated by the violence of time 
and the elements, find them picturesque. 
" To return to a more practical view of the 
subject, we may remark, that though we con- 
sider the beautiful and the pictui'esque quite 
distinct, yet it by no means follows that they 
may not be combined in the same landscape. 
This is often seen in nature ; and indeed there 
are few landscapes of large extent where they 
are not thus harmoniously combined. , 
" But it must be remembered, that while 
landscape gardening is an imitation of nature, 
yet it is rarely attempted on so large a scale 
as to be capable of the same extended har- 
mony and variety of expression ; and also, 
that in landscape gardening as in the other fine 
arts, we shall be more successful by directing 
our efforts towards the production of a leading 
character or expression, than by endeavouring 
to join and harmonize several. 
" Our own views on this subject are simply 
these. When a place is small, and only per- 
mits a single phase of natural expression, 
always endeavour to heighten or to make 
that single expression predominate ; it should 
clearly either aim only at the beautiful or the 
picturesque. 
" When, on the contrary, an estate of large 
size comes within the scope of the landscape 
gardener, he is at liberty to give to each 
separate scene its most fitting character ; he 
will thus, if he is a skilful artist, be able to 
create great variety both of beautiful and pic- 
turesque expression, and he will also be able 
to give a higher proof of his power, viz. by 
uniting all those scenes into one whole, by 
bringing them all into harmony. An artist 
who can do this has reached the ultimatum of 
his art. 
"Again and again has it been said, that 
landscape gardening and painting are allied. 
In no one point does it appear to us that they 
are so, more than in this — that in proportion 
to the limited nature of the subject should 
simplicity and unity of expression be remem- 
bered. In some of the finest smaller compo- 
sitions of Raphael, or some of the landscapes 
of Claude, so fully is this borne in mind, that 
every object, however small, seems to be in- 
stinct with the same expression ; while in 
many of the great historical pictures, unity 
and harmony are wrought out of the most 
complex variety of expression. 
" We must not be supposed to find in na- 
ture only the beautiful and the picturesque. 
Grandeur and sublimity are also expressions 
strongly marked in many of the noblest por- 
tions of natural landscape. But, except in 
very rare instances, they are wholly beyond the 
powers of the landscape gardener, at least in 
the comparatively limited scale of his opera- 
tions in this country. All that he has to do, 
is to respect them where they exist in natural 
landscape which forms part of his work of art, 
and so treat the latter, as to make it accord 
with, or at least not violate, the higher and 
predominant expression of the whole. 
" There are, however, certain subordinate 
expressions Avhich may be considered as quali- 
ties of the beautiful, and which may origi- 
nally so prevail in natural landscape, or be so 
elicited or created by art, as to give a distinct 
character to a small country residence, or por- 
tions of a large one. These are simplicity, 
dignity, grace, elegance, gaiety, chasteness, &c. 
