"the more you will have the advantage. Nothing indeed can be so absurd, "nor so unphilosophical, as the system which Mr. Knight and Mr. Price

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seem to set up. It not only is not true in practice, that men should expose themselves to agues and rheumatisms, by removing from their "habitations every convenience that may not happen to fall in with the "ideas of picturesque beauty; but it is not true that what is adverse to "comfort and convenience, is in situations of that sort the most beautiful. "The writers of this school, with all their affectation of superior sensibility, "shew evidently that they do not trace with any success the causes of their 'pleasure. Does the pleasure that we receive from the view of parks and "gardens result from their affording in their several parts subjects that "would appear to advantage in a picture? In the first place, what is most "beautiful in nature is not always capable of being represented most "advantageously by painting; the instance of an extensive prospect, the "most affecting sight that the eye can bring before us, is quite conclusive. "I do not know anything that does, and naturally should, so strongly "affect the mind, as the sudden transition from such a portion of space as "we commonly have in our minds, to such a view of the habitable globe as “may be exhibited in the case of some extensive prospects. Many things "too, as you illustrate well in the instance of deer, are not capable of "representation in a picture at all; and of this sort must everything be "that depends on motion and succession. But, in the next place, the "beauties of nature itself, and which painting can exhibit, are many, and "most of them, probably, of a sort which have nothing to do with the "purposes of habitation, and are even wholly inconsistent with them. A "scene of a cavern, with banditti sitting by it, is the favourite subject of "Salvator Rosa; but are we therefore to live in caves, or encourage the "neighbourhood of banditti?—Gainsborough's country girl is a more pic"turesque object than a child neatly dressed in a white frock; but is that a reason why our children are to go in rags? Yet this is just the proposition "which Mr. Knight maintains, in the contrast which he exhibits of the same place, dressed in the modern style, and left, as he thinks, it ought "to be. The whole doctrine is so absurd, that when set forth in its true "shape, no one will be hardy enough to stand by it, and accordingly they "never do set it forth, nor exhibit it in any distinct shape at all; but only "take a general credit for their attachment to principles which everybody "is attached to as well as they; and where the only question is of the "application which they afford you no means of making. They are lovers "of picturesque beauty, so is everybody else; but is it contended that in "laying out a place, whatever is most picturesque, is most conformable to "true taste? If they say so, as they seem to do in many passages, they "must be led to consequences which they can never venture to avow: if "they do not say so, the whole is a question of how much, or how little; which, " without the instances before you, can never be decided; and all that they "do is to lay down a system as depending on one principle, which they "themselves are obliged to confess afterwards, depends upon many. They "either say what is false, or what turns out upon examination to be nothing

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" at all.

"I hope, therefore, that you will pursue the system which I conceive "you to have adopted, and vindicate to the art of laying out ground its true "principles, which are wholly different from those which these wild im"provers would wish to introduce. Places are not to be laid out with a view "to their appearance in a picture, but to their uses, and the enjoyment of "them in real life; and their conformity to those purposes is that which con"stitutes their beauty with this view, gravel walks, and neat mown lawns, "and in some situations, straight alleys, fountains, terraces, and, for aught I know, parterres and cut hedges, are in perfect good taste, and infinitely "more conformable to the principles which form the basis of our pleasure "in these instances, than the docks and thistles, and litter and disorder, "that may make a much better figure in a picture.”

OBSERVATIONS

ON

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE

OF

LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

INCLUDING

SOME REMARKS ON GRECIAN AND GOTHIC

ARCHITECTURE,

Collected from Various Manuscripts,

IN THE

POSSESSION OF THE DIFFERENT NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN,

FOR WHOSE USE THEY WERE ORIGINALLY WRITTEN;

THE WHOLE TENDING TO ESTABLISH FIXED PRINCIPLES IN

THE RESPECTIVE ARTS.

BY H. REPTON, ESQ.

[Published in 1803.]

ΤΟ

THE KING,

WITH

HIS MAJESTY'S

MOST GRACIOUS PERMISSION,

THIS WORK

IS HUMBLY INSCRIBED, BY

HIS MAJESTY'S

MOST FAITHFUL, OBEDIENT,

AND HUMBLE SUBJECT,

HUMPHRY REPTON.

Hare Street, near Romford,

Dec. 31, 1802.

ADVERTISEMENT,

EXPLAINING THE NATURE OF THIS WORK.

SEVEN years have now elapsed since the publication of my "Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening," during which, by the continued duties of my profession, it is reasonable to suppose much experience has been gained and many principles established. Yet so difficult is the application of any rules of ART to the works of NATURE, that I do not presume to give this Book any higher title, than "Observations tending to establish fixed Principles in the Art of Landscape Gardening."

After various attempts to arrange, systematically, the matter of this Volume, I found the difficulties increase with the number of the subjects; and although each was originally treated with order and method in a separate state, yet, in combining many of these subjects, the same order and method. could not easily be preserved. I have, however, with as much attention to arrangement as my professional duties would admit, collected such observations as may best vindicate the Art of Landscape Gardening from the imputation of being founded on caprice and fashion: occasionally adding such matter as I thought might suit the various taste or inclinations of various readers. Some delight in speculative opinions, some in experimental facts; others prefer description, others look for novelty, and some, perhaps, for what I hope will not be found in this Work, impracticable theories.

The present Volume neither supersedes nor contradicts my former Work, neither is it a repetition nor a continuation; but to avoid the oblong and inconvenient shape of that book,