LANDSCAPE G ARDENTNG . 
3G7 
same time the great variety of objects,, and the numerous herds and 
flocks scattered in all directions over the lawns, banish that insipidity 
which so often accompanies purely beautiful scenes of equal extent. 
Nor is simple beauty the only characteristic of the place ; it is so inti¬ 
mately blended with utility, and with every comfort and convenience 
of a country residence, that a visiter must possess most fastidious ideas 
indeed, who could survey such scenery and dispositions without plea¬ 
surable emotion and unqualified admiration. It is true that some eyes, 
like some palates, require irritation; a flickering scene of strong con¬ 
trasts of forms and colours is more attractive than a quiet pastoral 
view: a high-seasoned ragout is more poignantly relished than a plain 
joint; but both eye and palate must be, I think, in some degree 
vitiated, which could derive no real pleasure from the one, or gratifica¬ 
tion from the other. 
Such scenery, however, as already stated, is not that which a painter 
would choose for his canvas, merely because there is too much same- 
ness of aspect, too much mildness of tint—too much, in fact, of what 
a painter would perhaps call tameness; and yet, from some stations 
on the pleasure-ground walk, and others in various parts of the park, 
he would find some most interesting scenes, in which every thing and 
disposition suitable for a picture are combined; and more especially 
under a noon-tide sun, when the shadows are most intense, and the 
catching lights most bright. 
It is this style of scenery which landscape gardeners in general are 
most ambitious to create, and in which they endeavour to excel: and 
if the genius of the place,” as it has been called, does not militate 
against such a style, it is quite right it should be executed, because it 
obliterates every mark of roughness and neglect, and imposes an appear¬ 
ance of dressy neatness, which is sure to please every eye untainted by 
the affectation of the gallery. 
But, as before observed, it is for this exclusive love of beauty and 
neatness that many landscape gardeners have been blamed; not for their 
execution of it where it was called for, but for an indiscriminate appli¬ 
cation where improper. How many fine old castellated mansions, say 
their opponents, have been set out on a naked lawn ? How many rich 
masses of wood, which appeared to embrace and shelter the residence, 
have been anatomised for the sake of smoothness and a bedizened 
clearance? and how many necessary and legitimate accompaniments 
of a dwelling have been removed to a distance, merely because every 
window should, as much as possible, look out upon a piece of naked 
lawn ? 
All this is very true, and wherever such a style of improvement has 
