58 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
The recognition of art , as Loudon justly observes, is a 
first principle in Landscape Gardening, as in all other arts ; 
and those of its professors have erred, who supposed that 
the object of this art is, merely, to produce a fac-simile of 
nature, that could not be distinguished from a wild scene. 
But we contend that this principle may be equally attained 
in either school — the picturesque cottage being as much a 
work of art, as the classic villa ; its baskets, and seats of 
rustic work, indicating the hand' of man, as well as the 
marble vase, and balustrade ; and a walk, sometimes narrow 
and crooked, is as quickly recognized as man’s work, as one 
always regular and flowing. Foreign trees, of picturesque 
growth, are as readily obtained, as those of graceful forms. 
The recognition of art is, therefore, always apparent in both 
modes. The evidences are indeed stronger, and more multi- 
plied, in the careful polish of the Graceful school ; and 
looking at the effects, with this principle mainly in view, as 
many persons will, whose only standard is cost and expense, 
this school must be acknowledged the most beautiful and 
perfect.* But, assuming the principle of beauty of expres- 
sion to be the higher, many imaginative persons will prefer 
the picturesque school, as affecting the mind with much of 
the peculiar beauty of wild nature, combined with the ad- 
* The beau ideal in Landscape Gardening, as a fine art, appears to us, to be em- 
braced in the creation of scenery expressive of a peculiar kind of beauty, as 
the graceful, or picturesque, the materials of which are, to a certain extent, 
different from those in wild nature, being composed of the floral and arboricul- 
tural riches of all climates , as far as possible ; uniting, in the same scene, a 
richness and a variety never to be found in any one portion of nature ; — a scene 
characterized as a work of art, by the variety of the materials, as foreign trees, 
plants, &c., and by the polish and keeping of the grounds in the natural style, 
as distinctly as by the uniform and symmetrical arrangement, in the ancient 
style. 
