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Stanton, near Germantown, four miles from Philadelphia, is a fine old place, with many picturesque features. The farm consists of 700 acres, almost without division fences— admirably managed-and remarkable for its grand old avenue of the hemlock spruce, 110 years old, leading to a family cemetery of much sylvan beauty. There is a large and excellent old mansion, with paved halls, built in 1731, which is preserved in its original condition. This place was the seat of the celebrated Logan, the friend of William Penn, and is now owned by his descendant, Albanus Logan. The villa residence of Alexander Brown, Esq., is situated on the Delaware, a few miles from Philadelphia. There is here a good deal of beauty, in the natural style, made up chiefly by lawn and forest trees. A pleasing drive through plantations of 25 years' growth, is one of the most interesting features-and there is much elegance and high keeping n the grounds.

Below Philadelphia, the lover of beautiful places will find a good deal to admire in the country seat of John R. Latimer, Esq., near Wilmington, which enjoys the reputation of being the finest in Delaware. The place has all the advantages of high keeping, richly stocked gardens and conservatories, and much natural beauty, heightened by judicious planting, arrangement, and culture.

At the south are many extensive country residences remarkable for trees of unusual grandeur and beauty, among which the live oak is very conspicuous; but they are, in general, wanting in that high keeping and care, which is so essential to the charm of a landscape garden.

Of smaller villa residences, suburban chiefly, there are great numbers, springing up almost by magic, in the borders of our towns and cities. Though the possessors of

these can scarcely hope to introduce anything approaching to a landscape garden style, in laying out their limited grounds, still they may be greatly benefited by an acquaintance with the beauties and the pleasures of this species of rural embellishment. When we are once master of the principles, and aware of the capabilities of an art, we are able to infuse an expression of tasteful design, or an air of more correct elegance, even into the most humble works, and with very limited means.

While we shall endeavor, in the following pages, to give such a view of modern Landscape Gardening, as will enable the improver to proceed with his fascinating operations, in embellishing the country residence, in a practical mode, based upon what are now generally received as the correct principles of the art, we would desire the novice, after making himself acquainted with all that can be acquired from written works within his reach, to strengthen his taste and add to his knowledge, by a practical inspection of the best country seats among us. In an infant state of society, in regard to the fine arts, much will be done in violation of good taste; but here, where nature has done so much for us, there is scarcely a large country residence in the Union, from which useful hints in Landscape Gardening may not be taken. And in nature, a group of trees, an accidental pond of water, or some equally simple object, may form a study more convincing to the mind of a true admirer of natural beauty, than the most carefully drawn plan, or the most elaborately written description.

SECTION II.

BEAUTIES AND PRINCIPLES OF THE ART.

Capacities of the art. The beauties of the ancient style. The modern style. The Beauti ful and the Picturesque: their distinctive characteristics. Illustrations drawn from Nature and Painting. Nature and principles of Landscape Gardening as an Imitative art. Distinction between the Beautiful and Picturesque. The principles of Unity, Harmony, and Variety.

"Here Nature in her unaffected dresse,

Plaited with vallies and imbost with hills,

Enchast with silver streams, and fringed with woods
Sits lovely."-

CHAMBERLAYNE.

"Il est des soins plus doux, un art plus enchanteur.
C'est peu de charmer l'œil, il faut parler au cœur.
Avez-vous donc connu ces rapports invisibles,
Des corps inanimés et des êtres sensibles?
Avez-vous entendu des eaux, des prés, des bois,
La muette éloquence et la secrète voix?
Rendez-nous ces effets."

B

Les Jardins, Book 1.

EFORE we proceed to a detailed and

more practical consideration of the subject, let us occupy ourselves for a moment with the consideration of the different results which are to be sought after, or, in other

words, what kinds of beauty we may hope to

produce by Landscape Gardening. To attempt the smallest work in any art, without knowing either the capacities of

that art, or the schools, or modes, by which it has previous ly been characterized, is but to be groping about in a dim twilight, without the power of knowing, even should we be successful in our efforts, the real excellence of our production or of judging its merit, comparatively, as a work of taste and imagination.

AAR

[Fig. 14. The Geometric style, from an old print.]

The beauties elicited by the ancient style of gardening were those of regularity, symmetry, and the display of labored art. These were attained in a merely mechanical manner, and usually involved little or no theory. The geometrical form and lines of the buildings were only extended and carried out in the garden. In the best classical models, the art of the sculptor conferred dignity and elegance on the garden, by the fine forms of marble vases and statues; in the more intricate and labored specimens of the

Dutch school, prevalent in England in the time of William IV. (Fig. 14), the results evince a fertility of odd conceits, rather than the exercise of taste or imagination. Indeed, as, to level ground naturally uneven, or to make an avenue, by planting rows of trees on each side of a broad walk, requires only the simplest perception of the beauty of ma thematical forms, so, to lay out a garden in the geometric style, became little more than a formal routine, and it was only after the superior interest of a more natural manner was enforced by men of genius, that natural beauty of expression was recognised, and Landscape Gardening was raised to the rank of a fine art.

The ancient style of gardening may, however, be introduced with good effect in certain cases. In public squares and gardens, where display, grandeur of effect, and a highly artificial character are desirable, it appears to us the most suitable; and no less so in very small gardens, in which variety and irregularity are out of the question. Where a taste for imitating an old and quaint style of residence exists, the symmetrical and knotted garden would be a proper accompaniment; and pleached alleys, and sheared trees, would be admired, like old armor or furniture, as curious specimens of antique taste and custom.

The earliest professors of modern Landscape Gardening have generally agreed upon two variations, of which the art is capable-variations no less certainly distinct, on the one hand, than they are capable of intermingling and combining, on the other. These are the beautiful and the picturesque: or, to speak more definitely, the beauty characterized by simple and flowing forms, and that expressed by striking, irregular, spirited forms.

The admirer of nature, as well as the lover of pictures

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