4 
THE FLORIST. 
164 
the dinner of say some £8 or £10 in expenses necessary, but that need 
not bo detailed here, as they are perfectly justifiable, and essential to 
the getting up of a successful dinner for the purpose of increasing the 
funds of the institution. What, then, is the trifling loss of these few 
pounds, compared with the great increase to the funds from the sub¬ 
scriptions ? This annual gathering of the friends of the Institution is 
the means of also bringing together many new friends and supporters, 
and keeps alive the interest of the Institution among those who are 
truly the “ working bees of the hive.” The dinner, this year, under 
the presidency of Mr. Sheriff Mechi, will be a success, we are certain, 
supported as he will be by an influential body of stewards, and many 
of the leading members of the nursery trade and patrons of horticulture, 
and much credit is due to Mr. Cutler, the hard-working secretary, for 
his great exertions and tact displayed in carrying out the duties of his 
office.] 
HINTS ON LANDSCAPE GARDENING.—No. III. 
Kent and Bridgeman were followed by Greenway and Brown. The 
latter commenced his labours as a landscape gardener somewhere about 
the middle of the last century, previous to which he had been head 
gardener at Stowe, the princely residence of Lord Temple, and more 
recently of the Dukes of Buckingham. Brown was very popular in 
his day; possessed great shrewdness and tact, and made a large 
fortune by his profession, having been more extensively employed 
than any other artist, either before his time or since ; but, unfortunately, 
his works proclaim his want of genius and true artistic knowledge. 
Let us take the three component parts of scenery—wood, water, and 
the surface ground—as laid down by Brown, and existing at many 
places to the present day, and we shall find his artificial lakes, 
with one or two excceptions—where, by damming up the gorge 
of a valley, and allowing the water to occupy the natural 
bottom, a good effect was produced—mere serpentine-shaped canals, 
swelled out here and there to give breadth, but with formal outlines 
and bald unbroken shores : his plantations were either in the shape of 
round clumps, formal and monotonous in the extreme, planted often 
with only one kind of tree, and varying only in size; or they formed a 
narrow, continuous belt, encircling the demesne or park, and equally 
as objectionable as the clumps. The limited comprehensiveness of 
Brown’s ideas as to what constitutes natural scenery allowed him no 
scope for variety, and became stereotyped in his mind’s eye ; and hence, 
under nearly every circumstance in which he gave designs, the same 
principles were laid down; until the places he laid out or improved 
became mere fac similes of each other, varying only so far as the 
natural features of the places themselves produced variety. In Brown’s 
designs we fail to detect anything like picturesqueness, or any natural 
scenery of a tamer character ; his water wants more irregularity of 
outline and bolder shores, to replace the sloping banks which in all his 
designs prevail; and where this was not practicable, the margins broken 
by gravel, rocks, or suitable water plants. His plantations want both 
