BEAUTIES AND PRINCIPLES OF THE ART. 
51 
simplest hints derived from the free and luxuriant forms of 
nature. No residence in the country can fail to be pleasing, 
whose features are natural groups of forest trees, smooth 
lawn, and hard gravel walks. 
But this is scarcely Landscape Gardening in the true 
sense of the word, although apparently so understood by 
many writers. By Landscape Gardening, we understand 
not only an imitation, in the grounds of a country residence, 
of the agreeable forms of nature, but an expressive, harmo- 
nious, and refined imitation .* In Landscape Gardening, 
we should aim to separate the accidental and extraneous 
in nature, and to preserve only the spirit, or essence. This 
subtle essence lies, w~e believe, in the expression more or 
less pervading every attractive portion of nature. And it 
is by eliciting, preserving, or heightening this expression, 
that we may give our landscape gardens a higher charm, 
than even the polish of art can bestow. 
Now, the two most forcible and complete expressions to 
be found in that kind of natural scenery which may be 
reproduced in Landscape Gardening, are the Beautiful 
and the Picturesque. As we look upon these as quite 
distinct, and as success in practical embellishment must 
depend on our feeling and understanding these expressions 
beforehand, it is necessary that we should attach some 
definite meaning to terms which we shall be continually 
obliged to employ. This is, indeed, the more requisite, from 
* “ Thus, there is a beauty of nature and a beauty of art. To copy the 
beauty of nature cannot be called being an artist in the highest sense of the 
word, as a mechanical talent only is requisite for this. The beautiful in art 
depends on ideas ; and the true artist, therefore, must possess, together with the 
talent for technical execution, that genial power which revels freely in rich 
forms, and is capable of producing and animating them. It is by this, that the 
aierit of the artist and his production is to be judged ; and these cannot be 
