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IIISTORY OF GARDENING. P art I.
he says, “ for disposing the current of a riA'cr to a mightic length in a little space I
invented tho serpentine, a form admirably convcighing the cuiTcnt in circular and yet
contrary motions upon ono and the same level, with walks and retirements hctweciic, to
tho advantage of iill puqioscs, either of gardenings, plantings, or banquctings, or aciy
delights, aud the multiplying of infinite fish in a little compass of ground, without any
sense of their being restrained. In brief, it is to reduce the ciuTcnt of a mile’s length
into the compass of an orchai-d.” (Gard. Mag., vol. iii. p. 480.) Kensington Gardens
were originally only twenty-six acres in extent ; Queen Anne added thirty acres, wliich
were laid out by her gm-dener, Henry Wise. Tlic principal additions were made by
Queen Caroline, by whoso directions nearly three hundred acres were taken out of Hyde
Park, and laid out by Bridgeman. (Lysons’s Environs.) Bickliam, who Avrote in 1742,
says, “ the gardens of Kensington Palace, which arc tlirec miles and a half in circiun-
fercncc, ai*c very fine ; and have been much improved and enlarged since his present
Majesty came to the throne, under the care and management of the late ingenious
Mr. Bridgeman. They ai*c kept in tho gi-eatcst order ; and in the summer time when
the court is not there, arc resorted to hy a vast concom-se of the most polite company.”
(Deliciæ Britannicæ, p. 32.) From Horace Walpole’s coiTespondcnce avc leiuTi that
Queen Caroline proposed to shut up St. James’s Park, and convert it into a noble
garden for the palace of that name. When her Majesty asked Sir Robert Walpole
Avhat it might probably cost, he answered “ only three croAvns.” Batty Langley, who
Avrotc in tliis reign (1 7 2 8 ), says, “ tho regular gardens were first taken from the
Dutch, and introduced into England in the time of the late Mr. London and Mr. Wise,
Avho being then supposed to be the best gardeners in England (the ai-t being in its
infancy to Avhat it is noAv), were employed by the nobility and gentry of England to lay
out and plant their gai'dens, in that regular, stiff, and stuck-up manner in which many
yet appear.” Yet Batty Langley’s stylo is proverbial for the veiy faults he complains
of ; a clear proof that the modern style was little known in England in 1728.
572. Canons, the magnificent seat o f the Duke o f Chandes, is one of the principal
places laid out in the ancient style dm'ing tliis reign. The artist who gave the design
botli for the house and gardens was, wc believe, James, the translator of Le Blond’s
Théorie et Pratique du Jardinage ; and the execution of at least the gardening and
planting departments Avas superintended by Dr, BlackAvcU, a physician and agriculturist
of some note. The Duke is mentioned by Miller as one of the principal cncoiu'agcrs
of gardening. As far as we have been able to learn, the last extensive residence laid
out in tho ancient style, in England, was Extou Pai'k, in Rutlandshire, hy Kent ; then
tlic property of the Earl of Gainsborough, the Mecænas of his age. I t was finished
iibout the year 1730. Kent had already returned from Italy, and been employed as a
painter and architect, and he began to display his gcnins a few years afterwards as a
landscape-gardener.
573. In this brief outline o f the rise, progress, and decline o f the ancient style o f gardening
in England, avc havo chiefly confined our notices to tho gardens of the court ; because
in every country, during the earlier stages of civilisation, these may be considered as
setting tho fashion, and consequently as indicating the taste of a nation. Men in time,
however, as they become more enlightened, begin to think for themselves ; the influence
of fashion gi'adually gives way, and that of native feeling and reason preponderates, Iu
no country has reformation of any kind originated Avith tho court of that country;
because a couiticr is by habit a creatm-e of imitation, accustomed to mould bis actions,
and even thoughts, on the model afforded hy his superiors ; and, of course, incapable
of acting for himself. Nature, however, is essentially the same in every age, and now
and then a germ, of genius, or original thinking, Avhich under happier ch'cumstanccs of
society Avould be developed by education, breaks forth by accident. But it is only in
important matters which concern the passions or vital interests of mankind, that these
germs burst forth so suddenly, and Avith such force, as to enable us to name the precise
period in which, or even tho individual hy Avhom, any given revolution Avas effected.
In matters relating merely to taste and convenience, these changes proceed more slowly ;
because tho passions and feelings which are engaged in them arc less violent.
574. The continental authors in general assert that we bon'owcd the modem style
from the Chinese ; or, Avith Gabriel Thouin and Malacamc, deny us the merit of being
the first either to borroAv or invent it, by presenting claims of originality for their
respective countries. Gabriel Thouin asserts (Plans lîaisonnés, preface, &c,) that the
first example was given by Dufrcsnoy (216.), a Parisian architect, in tlic I'aubourg
Saint Antoine, in the beginning of the eighteenth ccntuiy. The claims of Malacarnc of
Padua, in belialf of Chai'les I. duke of Savoy, about the end of the sixteenth century,
have been already re fe iT c d to. In as far as literature is concerned, we think that
Tasso’s claim to priority is indisputable. (See Disserlazione su i Giardini Inglese, by
Hippolyto Pindemonte, Verona, 1817 ; or a translation of part of it hy ns, in the iVew
Monthly Magazine, Feb. 1820.) Deleuze, tlic historian of hotany and ornamental
plants (ám a le s du Musée, tom. rä i. 1806), endeavours, at some length, to prove that
the new style of gardening arose from the neees.sity of finding room for ttie great
number of oniamontal shrubs and trcos introduced from America, during the first half
of the eighteenth eentmy. Boettinger, in his Eacanazimem zur Gartenkunst der Alten,
&c. carries us back to the descriptions of the grotto of Calypso hy Ilomcr, the vale of
Tempe hy Æliaii, and of Vaucluse by Petrarch. The anonymous author of the
Description o f the Gardens o f Worlitz (together with the editor of Walpdiana) dates
the origin of English gardening from the artiflcial deserts created by Nero, as described
by Tacitus (sec § 49.). . _ , , , ro,
575 British authors are o f various opinions as to the origin o f the modern style, ih e
poet Gray (Xi/è and Letters, &c. ; Letter to Mr. Haw, dated 1763) is of opinion, that
“ our skill in gardening, or rather laying out gi-ouiids, is the only taste wo can call our
own ; tho only proof of original talent in matters of pleasure. This is no small honour
to ns • since neither Ei-ance nor Ibaly have ever had the least notion of it.” Dr. Joseph
Warton and Horace Walpole, the former in his Essay on Pope, and the latter in his
Iiistory o f Modern Gardening, agree ill rofening the first ideas to Milton ; and Warton
adds that the Seasons of Thomson may have had a very considerahlo influence. The
author of a Biograplfical Sketch of Horace Walpole (Pinkerton), prefixed to Walpoliana,
states, that he “ suggested to Mr. Walpole a singular passage in Tacitus (already quoted,
S 49.), which londly indicates Nero as the founder of modern gardening.” He says that
“ M r Walpole seemed much strack with it, and said he would insert it in the next edition
of his Essay on Modem Gardening; but be cliangcd bis mind, probably not liking such
a founder.” (Walpoliana, preface, p. x x x .) George Mason, tbe author of an Essay cm
Desimi in Gardening, which appeared in 1768, and is one of the earliest prose works on
the modem style, states, that “ were only classical authoi-itios consulted, it would hardly
be supposed that even from the earliest ages any considerable variation in taste had ever
prevailed.” (Essay an Design, &c., p. 27.) Speaking of tho Cliinese stylo, he says,
“ littlo did Sir wiUiam Temple imagine, that in not much more than half a century,
tho Cliinese would become tho nominal taste of his country ; or that so many adventurers
in it would do great justice to his observation, and provo hy their works, how
difficidt it is to succeed in the imdcitaking. Yet to this whimsical exercise of caprice,
the modern improvements in gardening may chiefly ho attributed.” (Essay on Design,
&o., p. 60.) No man could be a more enthusiastic admirer of the ctassics, a waniiei-
patriot, or a more rigid ci-itio, than this author ; and it appears from anotlier part of his
work (Discussion on Kent, p. 105.) that he was well aware, when lie wrote the above
passavo, that tho origin of the modem style was generally traced to Kent. That he
should derive it from our attempt at tho Chmoso manner, wc consider as a proof of
caiidom- and impartiality. Mason the poet states, in a note to tho English Garden, that
“ Bacon was the prophet, Milton the herald, of modem gai'doning ; and Addison, Pope,
•and Kent, the clianipions of tra c taste.” The cfiicacy of Bacon’s ideas, G. Mason
considers to have been “ the introduction of classical landscapes,” though this does not
very clearly appear from liis essay, tho object of wbicli seems to be, to banish certain
littlenesses and puerilities, and to create more variety, hy introducing ciiclosurcs of wild
sconery as well as of cultivation. Tlic title of champion, applied to Addison, alludes
to his oxcollont paper in the Spectator, No. 414. “ On the causes of the pleasures of the
imavination arising from the works of nature, and their superiority over those of art,
pubhshed ill 1712 ; and when applied to Pope, it refers to liis oolobratcd Guardian, No.
173., puhlishcd the following yciu-. Boettiiigcr, however, affirms that tho bishop of
Avranches bad thrown out similai ideas prcvionsly to tho appearance of the Spectator.
(See Huetiana, Pensée 51. “ Beautes naturelles préférables aux beautés de l ’a r t;” and
p 72 , “ Des jardins à la mode.”) The Ecv. Dr. Alison, author of the Essay on the Nature
/n d Principles o f Taste, scorns to ccmsidcr the modem stylo as derived from om- taste
for the classic descriptions of the poets of antiquity. “ In tliis vicAV,” (alluding to the
progress of art from the expression of design to the expression of vai'iety and natural
beauty,) he observes, “ I cannot help thinking that the modern taste m gardening (or
Avhat Walpole very justly, aud very emphatically, calls the art of creating landscape,)
OAvcs its origin to two circumstances, Avhich may, at first, appear paradoxical ; viz. to
■the accidental circumstances of our taste in natural beauty being founded upon foreign
models ; and to the difference or inferiority of the scenery of our OAvn coimtiy to that
Avhieh we AVcre accustomed peculiarly to admire.” Eustace, the Italian tourist, considers
Tasso’s garden of Ai'inida as more likely to have given rise to the English style than
any classical Avork, or even the Paradise of Milton,
576. Ou7 - own opinion inclines to th a t of G. Mason, Avithout doubting th a t examples
of wild scenery, with Avalks, havo existed and been admired, n o t only long before the time
)f Tasso, both in Italy aud in this country, but from the cai'liest ages. In fret, it is iv
iblc to doubt that beautiful scenery Avas admired by minds of reiincinent ni^all_
and places, ami that the wcallliy would frequently endeavour to create it,
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In fret, it is impos-
timcs
Semiram’s