168 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
which gives the whole a very dressy look ; and when fully cropped, a 
ride along its green head-lands must be as interesting to a visiter as 
any other portion of the estate. 
I dare say you begin to perceive that a complete country seat is com¬ 
posed of many different parts, all contributing to the comfort and 
convenience, as well as to the pleasure and profit, of the possessor. 
Without such arrangements as belong to the architect and landscape 
gardener to create, and which always ensures, or have a tendency to 
ensure, every domestic and, at the same time, every out-of-door agree¬ 
able convenience and befitting disposition, no honour can redound to 
the artists, nor satisfaction to their employer. As I have stated before, 
the utile must be so blended with the dulce that no sacrifice should be 
made entirely for the sake of the last, nor no poverty of design be 
allowed to prevail or disfigure the natural beauties of the place for the 
sake of the first. Because you may observe from the description I have 
endeavoured to give, that the ornamental plantations are every year in¬ 
creasing in value, and at a higher rate than any other crop or crops which 
could be raised in the same time upon the ground they occupy ; and, 
moreover, their tasteful disposition adds a vast additional value to the 
estate, independent entirely of the value of the timber they contain. 
Neither can the extent of pasture land be said to be a waste of good 
ground; for calculating on the great number of live stock it constantly 
maintains, it probably pays as well as if it were under the plough. In 
these instances, therefore, no sacrifice of the local or natural value of 
the land is made to the detriment of the proprietor. 
The lake, indeed, may be objected to as a waste of good meadow 
land, and so it is; but when we consider how much the beauty, and 
consequently the value, of the estate is enhanced by the existence of 
such a splendid feature, no one can deem it an extravagant luxury; 
more especially as it contributes so much to the rational gratification of 
its generous and amiable possessor. 
I have intentionally mentioned all those particulars belonging to this 
well-designed country seat, to show how many things should engage 
the attention of a landscape gardener, who may be employed to lay out 
a new place. You and I used to think that the decorative part was the 
only proper province of the ground improver, or landscape gardener, or 
whatever other title he assumed; that his special business was only to 
beautify the place by smoothing what was rough, clothing what was 
naked, putting in order irregularities, or curving what was stiffly 
straight; in short, to make pretty pictures of whatever or wherever 
he could, and by all means to give a dressy or holiday-look to every 
thing he touched, and to every disposition he made ; and all this only 
