A fingle garden must be distinguished from a plu rality; and yet it is not obvious in what the unity of a garden confists. We have indeed fome notion of unity in a garden furrounding a palace, with views from each window, and walks leading to every corner: but there may be a garden without a house; in which cafe, it is the unity of defign that makes it one garden; as where a fpot of ground is fo artfully dreffed as to make the feveral portions appear to be parts of one whole. The gardens of Verfailles, properly expreffed in the plural number, being no fewer than fixteen, are indeed all of them connected with the palace, but have scarce any mu tual connection they appear not like parts of one whole, but rather like fmall gardens in contiguity. A greater diftance between thefe gardens would produce a better effect: their junction breeds confufion of ideas, and upon the whole gives less pleasure than would be felt in a flower fucceffion. Regularity is required in that part of a garden which is adjacent to the dwelling-houfe; becaufe an immediate acceffory ought to partake the regularity of the principal object:* but in proportion to the distance from the houfe confidered as the centre, regularity * The influence of this connection furpaffing all hounds, is ftill visible in many gardens, formed of horizontal plains forc'd with great labour and expenfe, perpendicular faces of earth fupported by maf fy ftone walls, terrace-walks in ftages one above another, regular ponds and canals without the leaft motion, and the whole furrounded, like a prifon, with high walls excluding every external object. At first view it may puzzle one to account for a tafle fo oppofite to nature in every par ticular. But nothing happens without a caufe. Perfect regularity ard uniformity are required in a houfe; and this idea is extended to its accef fory the garden, efpecially if it be a small fpot incapable of grandeur or of much variety: the houfe is regular, fo muft the garden be; the floors of the houfe are horizontal, and the garden must have the fame pofition; in the house we are protected from every intruding eye, fo muft we be in the garden. This, it must be confeffed, is carrying the notion of res femblance very far: but where reafon and tafle are laid afleep, nothing is more common than to carry refemblance beyond proper bounds. regularity ought lefs and lefs to be ftudied; for in an extenfive plan, it hath a fine effect to lead the mind infenfibly from regularity to a bold variety. Such arrangement tends to make an impreffion of grandeur: and grandeur ought to be studied as much as poffible, even in a more confined plan, by avoiding a multiplicity of fmall parts. A fmall garden, on the other hand, which admits not grandeur, ought to be strictly regular. Milton, defcribing the garden of Eden, prefers justly grandeur before regularity: Flowers worthy of paradife, which not nice art Paradife Loft, b. 4. A hill covered with trees, appears more beautiful as well as more lofty than when naked. To diftribute trees in a plain requires more art: near the dwelling-house they ought to be scattered fo diftant from each other, as not to break the unity of the field; and even at the greateft diftance of diftinct. vifion, they ought never to be fo crowded as to hide any beautiful object. In the manner of planting a wood or thicket, much art may be difplayed. A common centre of walks, termed a star, from whence are seen remarkable objects, appears too artificial, and confequently too ftiff and formal, to be agreeable: the crowding withal fo many objects together, leffens the pleafure that would be felt in a flower fucceffion. Abandoning therefore the star, let us try to substitute fome form more nat ural, * See chap. 4. ural, that will difplay all the remarkable objects in the neighbourhood. This may be done by various apertures in the wood, purpofely contrived to lay open fucceffively every fuch object; fometimes a fingle object, fometimes a plurality in a line, and fometimes a rapid fucceffion of them: the mind at intervals is roufed and cheered by agreeable objects: and by furprife, upon viewing objects of which it had no expectation. Attending to the influence of contraft, explained in the eighth chapter, we difcover why the lowness of the ceiling increases in appearance the fize of a large room, and why a long room appears still longer by being very narrow, as is remarkable in a gallery : by the fame means, an object terminating a narrow opening in a wood, appears at a double diftance. This fuggefts another rule for diftributing trees in fome quarter near the dwelling-houfe which is to place a number of thickets in a line, with an opening in each, directing the eye from one to another; which will make them appear more diftant from each other than they are in reality, and in appearance enlarge the fize of the whole field. To give this plan its ut noft effect, the fpace between the thickets ought to be confiderable and in order that each may be feen diftinctly, the opening neareft the eye ought to be wider than the fecond, the fecond wider than the third, and fo on to the end.* By a judicious diftribution of trees, other beauties may be produced. A landfcape fo rich as to ingrofs the whole attention, and fo limited as fweetly to be comprehended An object will appear more difiant than it really is, if different colevergreens be planted between it and the eye. Suppofe holly and Laurel, and the holly which is of the deeper colour, nearer the eye the degradation of colour in the Laurel, makes it appear at a great dif tance from the holly, and confequently removes the object, in appea Auce, to a greater diflance than it really is. A comprehended under a fingle view, has a much finer effect than the most extenfive landscape that requires a wandering of the eye through fucceffive fcenes. This obfervation fuggefts a capital rule in laying out a field; which is, never at any one station to admit a larger profpect than can eafily be taken in at once. A field fo happily fituated as to command a great extent of profpect, is a delightful fubject for applying this rule: let the profpect be split into proper parts by means of trees; ftudying at the fame time to in-, troduce all the variety poflible. A plan of this kind executed with tafte will produce charming effects: the beautiful profpects are multiplied: each of them is much more agreeable than the entire profpect was originally and, to crown the whole, the fcenery is greatly diverfified. As gardening is not an inventive art, but an imi-; tation of nature, or rather nature itself ornamented; it follows neceffarily, that every thing unnatural ought to be rejected with difdain. Statues of wild beafts vomiting water, a common ornament in gardens, prevail in those of Versailles. Is that ornament in a good tafte? A jet d'eau, being purely artificial, may, without difguft, be tortured into a thoufand fhapes: but a reprefentation of what really exists in nature, admits not any unnatural circumftance. In the flatues of Verfailles the artit has difplayed his vicious tafte without the leaft colour or difguife. A lifelefs ftatue of an animal pouring cut water, may be endured without much difguft: but here the lions and wolves are put in violent action," each has feized its prey, a deer or a lamb, in act to devour; and yet, as by hocus-pocus, the whole is converted into a different fcene: the lion, forgetting his prey, pours out water plentifully; and the deer, forgetting its danger, performs the fame work: a reprefentation reprefentation no lefs abfurd than that in the opera, where Alexander the Great, after mounting the wall of a town befieged, turns his back to the enemy, and entertains his army with a fong.* In gardening, every lively exhibition of what is beautiful in nature has a fine effect: on the other hand, diftant and faint imitations are difpleafing to every one of tafte. The cutting evergreens in.. the fhape of animals, is very ancient; as appears from the epiftles of Pliny, who feems to be a great admirer of the conceit. The propenfity to imitation 4.gave birth to that practice and has fupported it wonderfully long, confidering how faint and infipid the: imitation is. But the vulgar, great and fmall, are entertained with the oddnefs and fingularity of a refemblance, however diftant, between a tree and an animal. An attempt in the gardens of Verfailles to imitate a grove of trees by a group of jets d'eau, appears, for the fame reason, no lefs childifh. In defigning a garden, every thing trivial or whimfical ought to be avoided. Is a labyrinth then to be juftified? It is a mere conceit, like that of compofing verfes in the fhape of an axe or an egg: the walks and hedges may be agreeable; but in the form of a labyrinth, they ferve to no end but to puzzle: a rid dle is a conceit not fo mean; because the folution is proof of fagacity, which affords no aid in tracing a labyrinth, The gardens of Verfailles, executed with boundfefs expense by the beft artists of that age, are a lafting monument Ulloa, a Spanish writer, deferibing the city of Lima, fays, that the great fquare is finely ornamented. "In the centre is a fountain, equally remarkable for its grandeur and capacity. Railed above the fountain is a bronze ftatue of Fame, and four fmall bafons on the angles. The water iffues from the trumpet of the statue, and from the mouths of eight lions furrounding it, which (in his opinion) greatly heighten the beauty of the whole." |