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LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
who so elegantly and ingeniously engrafts art upon nature, 
as to heighten her beauties ; while by the harmonious union 
he throws a borrowed charm around his own creation. 
The English, above all other people, are celebrated for 
their skill in what we consider rural adaptation. Their 
residences seem to be a part of the scenes where they are 
situated ; for their exquisite taste and nice perception of the 
beauties of Landscape Gardening and rural scenery, lead them 
to erect those picturesque edifices, which by their varied out- 
lines, seem in exquisite keeping with nature ; while by the 
numberless climbing plants, shrubs, and fine ornamental trees 
with which they surround them, they form beautiful pictures 
of rural beauty. Even the various offices connected with the 
dwelling, partially concealed by groups of foliage, and con- 
tributing to the expression of domestic comfort, while they 
extend out, and give importance to the main edifice, also 
serve to connect it, in a less abrupt manner, with the 
grounds. 
So different indeed is the general character of the cottage 
and villa architecture of England, that many an American, on 
looking over the illustrated works of their writers on domestic 
architecture, while he acknowledges their high scenic beauty, 
generally regards them in much the same light as he does 
Moore’s description of the vale of Cashmere, in Lalla Rookh — 
beautiful imaginative creations of the artist, but which can 
never be realized in every-day life, and a comfortable dwell- 
ing. The fact however is, it is well known, quite the con- 
trary ; for many of the English country residences are really 
far more beautiful than the pictorial representations ; and no 
people gather around themselves more of those little comforts 
and elegancies, which make up the sum total of home , than 
the inhabitants of that highly cultivated and gardenesque 
country. 
