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PREFACE. 
desideratum so much felt at present. While we have 
treatises, in abundance, on the various departments of the 
arts and sciences, there has not appeared even a single 
essay on the elegant art of Landscape Gardening. Hun- 
dreds of individuals who wish to ornament their grounds 
and embellish their places, are at a loss how to proceed, 
from the want of some leading principles , with the 
knowledge of which they would find it comparatively easy 
to produce delightful and satisfactory results. 
In the following pages I have attempted to trace out 
such principles, and to suggest practicable methods of 
embellishing our Rural Residences, on a scale com- 
mensurate to the views and means of our proprietors. 
While I have availed myself of the works of European 
authors, and especially those of Britain, where Landscape 
Gardening was first raised to the rank of a fine art, I have 
also endeavored to adapt my suggestions especially to this 
country and to the peculiar wants of its inhabitants. 
As a people descended from the English stock, we 
inherit much of the ardent love of rural life and its pursuits 
which belongs to that nation ; but our peculiar position, in 
a new world that required a population full of enterprise 
and energy to subdue and improve its vast territory, has., 
until lately, left but little time to cultivate a taste for Rural 
Embellishment. But in the older states, as wealth has 
accumulated, the country become populous, and society 
more fixed in its character, a return to those simple and 
fascinating enjoyments to be found in country life and 
rural pursuits, is witnessed on every side. And to this 
innate feeling, out of which grows a strong attachment to 
natal soil, we must look for a counterpoise to the great 
tendency towards constant change, and the restless spirit 
of emigration, which form part of our national character ; 
and which, though to a certain extent highly necessary to 
our national prosperity, are, on the other hand, opposed to 
social and domestic happiness. “ In the midst of the 
continual movement which agitates a democratic com- 
munity,” says the most philosophical writer who has yet 
discussed our institutions, “ the tie which unites one 
generation to another is relaxed or broken ; every man 
