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monument of a tafte the most depraved: the faults above mentioned, inftead of being avoided, are chofen as beauties, and multiplied without end. Nature, it would feem, was deemed too vulgar to be imitated in the works of a magnificent monarch: and for that reafon preference was given to things unnatural, which probably were mistaken for fupernatural. I have often amufed myself with a fanciful refemblance between these gardens änd the Arabian tales: each of them is a performance intended for the amusement of a great king: in the fixteen gardens of Verfailles there is no unity of defign, more than in the thousand and one Arabian tales: and, laftly, they are equally unnatural; groves of jets d'eau, ftatues of animals converfing in the manner of fop, water iffuing out of the mouths of wild beafts, give an impreffion of fairy-land and witchcraft, no lefs than diamond-palaces, invifible rings, fpells and incanta

tions.

A ftraight road is the most agreeable, because it fhortens the journey. But in an embellifhed field, a ftraight walk has an air of formality and confinement and at any rate is lefs agreeable than a winding or waving walk; for in furveying the beauties of an ornamented field, we love to roam from place to place at freedom. Winding walks have another advantage: at every ftep they open new views. In fhort, the walks in pleafure-ground ought not to have any appearance of a road: my intention is not to make a journey but to feast my eye on the beauties of art and nature. This rule excludes not openings. directing the eye to diftant objects. Such openings, befide variety, are agreeable in various refpects: firft, as obferved above, they extend in appearance the fize of the field: next, an object, at whatever diftance, continues the opening, and deludes the fpectator into a conviction, that

the

the trees which confine the view are continued till they join the object. Sraight walks in receffes do well they vary the fcenery. nd are favourable to meditation.

Avoid a ftraight avenue directed upon a dwelling- houfe better far an oblique approach in a waving line, with fingle trees and other fcattered objects interpofed. In a direct approach, the firft appearance is continued to the end: we fee a house at a distance, and we see it all along in the fame spot without any variety. In an oblique approach, the interpofed objects put the house feemingly in motion: it moves with the paffenger, and appears to direct its courfe fo as hofpitably to intercept him. An oblique approach contributes alfo to variety :" the houfe, feen fucceffively in different directions, affumes at each step a new figure.

A garden on a flat ought to be highly and varioufly ornamented, in order to occupy the mind, and prevent our regretting the infipidity of an uniform plain. Artificial mounts in that view are common : but no perfon has thought of an artificial walk elevat ed high above the plain. Such a walk is airy, and tends to elevate the mind: it extends and varies the profpect; and it makes the plain, feen from a height, appear more agreeable.

Whether fhould a ruin be in the Gothic or Grecian form? In the former, I think; because it exhibits the triumph of time over ftrength; a melancholy, but not unpleafant thought a Grecian ruin fuggefts rather the triumph of barbarity over taste; a gloomy and difcouraging thought.

There are not many fountains in a good taste. Statues of animals vomiting water, which prevail every where, ftand condemned as unnatural. Aftatue of a whale fpouting water upward from its head is in

one

one fenfe natural, as certain whales have that power; but it is a fufficient objection, that its fingularity would make it appear unnatural; there is another reason against it, that the figure of a whale is in itself not agreeable. In many Roman' fountains, ftatues of fishes are employed to fupport a large bafon of water. This unnatural conceit is not accountable, "unless from the connection that water hath with the fish that swim in it; which by the way fhows the influence of even the flighter relations. The beft defign for a fountain I have met with, is what follows. In an artificial rock, rugged and abrupt, there is a cavity out of fight at the top: the water conveyed to it by a pipe, pours or trickles down the broken parts of the rock, and is collected into a bafon at the foot it is fo contrived as to make the water fall in fheets or in rills at pleasure.

Hitherto a garden has been treated as a work intended folely for pleafure, or, in other words, for giving impreffions of intrinfic beauty. What comes next in order, is the beauty of a garden destined for ufe, termed relative beauty;* and this branch fhall be dispatched in a few words. In gardening, luckily relative beauty need never ftand in oppofition to intrinfic beauty: all the ground that can be requifite for ufe, makes but a fmall proportion of an ornamented field and may be put in any corner without obftructing the difpofition of the capital parts. At the fame time, a kitchen-garden or an orchard is fufceptible of intrinfic beauty; and may be fo artfully difpofed among the other parts, as by variety and contrait to contribute to the beauty of the whole. In this refpect, architecture requires a greater flretch of art, as will be feen immediately; for as intrinfic and relative beauty muft often be blended in the fame building,

* See the fe terms defined, Chap. 3.

building, it becomes a difficult task to attain both in any perfection.

In a hot country it is a capital object to have what may be termed a fummer-garden; that is, a fpot of ground difpofed by art and by nature to exclude the fun, but to give free accefs to the air. In a cold country, the capital object should be a winter-garden, open to the fun, fheltered from wind, dry under foot, and taking on the appearance of fummer by variety of evergreens. The relifh of a country-life, totally extinct in France, is decaying fast in Britain. But as ftill many people of fashion, and fome of taste, pass the winter, or part of it, in the country, it is amazing that winter-gardens fhould be overlooked. During fummer, every field is a garden; but during half of the year, the weather is feldom fo good in Britain as to afford comfort in the open air without fhelter; and yet feldom fo bad as not to afford comfort with fhelter. I fay more, that befide providing for exercife and health, a winter-garden may be made fubfervient to education, by introducing a habit of thinking. In youth, lively fpirits give too great a propenfity to pleasure and amusement, making us averse to ferious occupation. That untoward bias may be corrected in fome degree by a winter-garden, which produces in the mind a calm fatisfaction, free from agitation of paffion, whether gay or gloomy; a fine tone of mind for meditation and reafoning.*

Gardening

A correfpondent, whofe name I hitherto have concealed, that I might not be thought vain, and which I can no longer conceal, (a) writes to me as follows: "In life we generally lay our account with profperity, and feldom, very feldom, prepare for adverfity. We carry that propenfity even into the ftructure of our gardens: we cultivate the gay or naments of fummer, relishing no plants but what flourish by mild dews and gracious funfhine : we banifh from our thoughts ghafly winter, when the benign influences of the fun cheering us no more, are doubly reg etted by yielding to the piercing north wind and nipping froll. Sage is the gardener, in the metaphorical as well as fiteral fenfe, who procures a friendly shelter to protect us from De

(a) Mrs. Montagu,

cember

Gardening being in China brought to greater perfection than in any other known country, we fhall close our prefent fubject with a flight view of the Chinefe gardens, which are found entirely obfequious to the principles that govern every one of the fine arts. In general, it is an indifpenfable law there, never to deviate from nature: but in order to produce that degree of variety which is pleafing, every method confiftent with nature is put in practice. Nature is ftrialy imitated in the banks of their artificial lakes and rivers; which fometimes are bare and gravelly, fometimes covered with wood quite to the brink of the water. To flat fpots adorned with flowers and fhrubs, are oppofed others steep and rocky. We fee meadows covered with cattle; rice grounds that run intolakes; groves into which enter navigable creeks and rivulets: thefe generally conduct to fome interesting object, a magnificent building, terraces cut in a mountain, a cascade, a grotto, an artificial rock. Their artificial rivers are generally ferpentine; fometimes narrow, noify, and rapid; fometimes deep, broad, and flow and to make the fcene ftill more active, mills and other moving machines are often erected. In the lakes are interspersed islands; fome barren, furrounded with rocks and fhoals; others enriched with every thing that art and nature can furnish. Even in their cafcades they avoid regularity, as forcing nature out of its courfe: the waters are feen bursting from the caverns and windings of the artificial rocks, here a roaring cataract, there many gentle falls; and the ftream often impeded by trees and ftones, that feem brought down by the violence

of

cember forms, and cultivates the plants that adorn and enliven that dreary feafon. He is no philofopher who cannot retire into the Stoic's walk, when the gardens of Epicurus are out of bloom: he is too much a philofopher who will rigidly profcribe the flowers and aromatics of fummer, to fit conftantly under the cyprefs fhade."

VOL. II.,

Y

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