Nature and Art, November 1, 18G6.] 
GARDENING IN CONNECTION WITH ARCHITECTURE. 
169 
and even Tartary, whose sovereign Timnr Beg 
(Tamerlane) built a splendid palace in the Baghi- 
dilcusha, or “ garden which rejoiceth the heart,” 
all prove that the art of gardening in combina- 
tion with architecture is innate in man, and is of the 
highest antiquity ; — still, for us people of modern 
Europe, the art may be said to have had its origin, 
to have been systematized and developed in a truly 
grand manner during the sixteenth century. Italy 
took the lead, not only in the formation of gardens 
for the growth of remai'kable trees and plants, 
but also in the adaptation of the ground, and the 
addition of artistic accessories, for the purpose of 
giving to them an architectural ' character in com- 
bination with the natural beauties of the site. At 
that time Italy set the fashion to other countries. 
France speedily followed in the same track, nor did 
our own country lag far behind, for in the gardens 
at Nonsuch Palace, laid out about the year 1540 
for Henry Till., we read of “shady walks, columns 
and pyramids of marble, fountains that spout water 
one round the other like a pyramid, upon which are 
perched small birds that stream water out of their 
bills.” These were among the concetti in which 
Mediaeval and Renaissance Europe took delight, 
but in the succeeding century such puerilities 
gradually gave way to a more purely artistic and 
refined taste. They were justly disregarded ; for, 
as Lord Bacon said of different coloured patterns, 
“You may see as good sights many times in tarts.” 
And we smile when the Rev. J. Cradock tells 
us of a Dutch garden at Saardam, in which he 
saw a table and punch-bowl, with pipes, cut out 
of evergreens, and a famous stag, whose antlers 
were always growing. This, however, relates to 
the ars topiaria, of which we shall have more to 
say anon. 
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
some of the most magnificent results of what may 
be called architectural gardening were achieved ; 
grand examples of which still are preserved to us, 
and demand our admiration, not only from the 
extensive scale on which they are carried out, but 
in many respects for the art evinced in their design. 
Such are the great gardens of the Pitti Palace 
and the Bellosguardo, at Florence ; the gardens of 
Pratolino, of the Pamphili Doria Palace, Rome ; 
of Caserta, near Naples ; of St. Cloud and Versailles 
— both from Le Notre’ s designs, — St. Germain en 
Laye, the Luxembourg Palace, and Fontainbleaxi, 
in France; Schdnbrunn, near Vienna; theJBelvedere, 
Potsdam, and Charlottenburg, near Berlin ; Loo, 
Ryswick, and the Hague in Holland ; the old 
parts of Blenheim, Cliatsworth, and Stowe, and 
Hampton-Court gardens and park, laid out by 
London and Wise, for King William III. At 
the latter place, however, the small garden was 
probably made in Wolsey’s time, and affords 
many examples of Bacon’s precepts. To our 
mind, these gardens with their alcoves, statues, 
terraces, and fountains, are charming, and full 
of delights, despite the somewhat monotonous 
character of their mathematical regularity. It 
must still be admitted, that Nature was then too 
little thought of, and Art too much. As Horace 
Walpole remarked : — 
“ The measured walk, the quincunx, and the dtoile im- 
posed tlieir unsatisfying- sameness on every royal and noble 
garden. Trees were headed, and their sides pared away. 
. . . In the garden of Marshal Biron, of Paris, consisting 
of fourteen acres, every walk is buttoned on each side by 
lines of flower-pots, which succeed in their seasons.” 
In spite, however, of such criticism, and the 
clever author’s sneers at fountains, which toss “their 
waste of waters into air in spouting columns,” and 
at “terraces hoisted aloft in opposition to the facile 
slopes that imperceptibly unite the valley to the 
hill,” we still see much to admire and love in these 
well-ordered gardens and the works of art, more 
or less suited to rustic scenery, with which they are 
adorned. 
A building, we must remember, is entirely a 
work of conventional art, and the ground more 
immediately in its neighbourhood should also be 
treated in a more or less conventional manner, in 
order to harmonize with it. But Fashion is pro- 
vei’bially fickle, and the witty and sarcastic Horace 
Walpole Avas in his day her arbiter elegantiarum. 
Bridgman commenced a reform, and Kent, the 
architect and protege of another arbiter, the Earl of 
Burlington, brought new principles to bear on the art 
of landscape gardening. Nature and breadth of effect 
were his guides. “ The great principles on which 
he worked,” writes Walpole, “were perspective, 
and light and shade.” Wild Nature now became 
more the vogue, to the disregard and disuse of the 
Arts. “ Capability Brown ” came to the throne, 
and Walpole, speaking of Warwick Castle, says, 
“It is well laid out by one Brown, who has set 
up on a feAv ideas of Kent and Mr. Southcote.” 
Whilst CoAvper in his “ Garden,” sings of him 
thus : — ■ 
“ Lo, lie comes ! 
Th’ omnipotent magician, Brown, appears ! 
Down falls the venerable pile, th’ abode 
Of our forefathers, a grave whisker’d race, 
But tasteless. Springs a palace in its stead. 
He speaks. The lake in front becomes a lawn ; 
Woods vanish, hills subside, and valleys rise : 
And streams, as if created for his use, 
Pursue the track of his directing- wand, 
Sinuous or straight, now rapid and now slow.” 
This Avell describes the new style of landscape 
gardening, which consisted in torturing and twisting 
Nature into something as different to herself as 
might please the fancy of “ Capability ” Brown, so 
called because his first remarks were always as to 
the “ capabilities ” of the ground placed under his 
moulding power. Nature here was denaturalized, 
and the Arts as applicable to Nature almost clean 
forgotten. A more tasteful sense of Nature in 
landscape gardening was inculcated by the succeed- 
ing school, of whom Sir TJvedale Price may be said 
to have been the founder. The “ English garden” 
by this time had become naturalized abroad and 
Avas looked upon as the acme of good taste ; and, in 
so far as it. aided or improved on natural features, 
and sought picturesque effects, it deserves some 
credit. But in all this, Art, and especially archi- 
tectural art, as forming an important feature in the 
