HISTORICAL NOTICES. 
25 
gizes for not praising him. 3 ’ Daines Barrington says, “Kent 
hath been succeeded by Brown, who hath undoubtedly, 
great merit in laying out pleasure grounds ; but I conceive, 
that, in some of his plans, I see traces rather of the kitchen 
gardener of old Stowe, than of Poussin, or Claude Lorraine.” 
This mannerism gave rise finally, to the celebrated work 
On the Picturesque by Sir Uvedale Price, who f in a series of 
elegant and masterly essays, pointed out the faults and follies 
of this Brown and his imitators, analyzed the beautiful and 
picturesque in nature and art, and founded a new school, 
more spirited and free in its aim, deriving its principles 
directly from nature and painting. These, with Knight’s 
elegant Poem, the Landscape , the English Garden by 
Mason, and Whately’s Observations on Modern Garden- 
ing , all published between 1750 and the beginning of the 
year 1800, established the new style firmly in the public mind. 
On the Continent, especially in France, though the old 
fashioned gardens were not demolished, as in England, 
new ones were laid out in accordance with the dawning taste, 
and none of the antique establishments were thought perfect 
without a spot set apart as a jardin Anglais . 
It is not a little remarkable that the Chinese taste in gar- 
dening, which was first made known to the English public 
about this time, is by far the nearest previous approach to 
the modern style. Some critics, indeed, have asserted that 
the English are indebted to it for their ideas of the modern 
style. However this may be, and we confess it has very 
little weight with us, the harmonious system which the taste 
of the English has evolved in the modern style, is at the 
present day, too far beyond the Chinese manner to admit of 
any comparison. The first is imbued with beauty of the 
most graceful and agreeable character, based upon nature, 
4 
