PREFACE 
TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 
It is even more gratifying to the author of this work to 
know, from actual observation, that the public taste in 
Rural Embellishment has, within a few years past, made 
the most rapid progress in this country, than to feel assured 
by the call for a fourth edition, that his own imperfect 
labors for the accomplishment of that end have been most 
kindly appreciated. 
In the present edition considerable alterations and 
amendments have been made in some portions — especially 
in that section relating to the nature of the Beautiful and 
the Picturesque. The difference among critics regarding 
natural expression and its reproduction in Landscape 
Gardening, has led him more carefully to examine this 
part of the subject, in order, if possible, to present it in 
the clearest and most definite manner. 
The whole work has also been revised, and more 
copiously illustrated, and is now offered in a more com- 
plete form than in any previous edition. 
A. J. D. 
Newburgh, New York, Jan. 1649. 
