Buckminster ........Leicestershire Bulstrode .J. H. Leigh, Esq. R. P. Carew, Esq. M.P. .. Hon. Mrs. Harvey Aston Earl Camden Hon. W. H. Bouverie, M.P. J. S. Harford, Esq. Marquis Lansdown .. Hon. Lady Salusbury ...... .P. Martineau, Esq. Wm. Payne, Esq. .Sir Wm. Manners, Bart. .Buckinghamshire.... His Grace the Duke of Portland Burleigh on the Hill Rutlandshire ........ Earl Winchelsea Catton. Cashiobury Catchfrench Chilton Lodge Clayberry Hall ....Norfolk Cobham Hall.... ...Kent...... ..... .... Jer. Ives, Esq. Earl of Essex .. Francis Glanville, Esq. M.P. James Hatch, Esq. Northamptonshire ..Sir Wm. Wake, Bart. Wiltshire .......... Paul Cob. Methuen, Esq. Condover Park......Shropshire .... ....Owen Smyth Owen, Esq. ...... Courteen Hall Corsham House Coombe Lodge Cote Bank Crewe Culford Donington Park .......... Cheshire ..Suffolk.... ...Leicestershire ...... ..John Crewe, Esq. M.P. ......Earl Moira Dulwich Casina ....Surry ...... Fort Garnons Glemham The Grove Hasells ... Richard Shawe, Esq. ...Herefordshire ......J. G. Cotterel, Esq. M.P. ..Suffolk....... Harewood House....Yorkshire .Southgate .Bedfordshire Panshanger Rüg... Sarsden Scarrisbrick .Yorkshire .... .Somersetshire Rutlandshire ..... Earl Wentworth Fitzwilliam ..Sir George Cornewall, Bart. M.P. ........ ..Gloucestershire ......T. Græme, Esq. Hertfordshire. Staffordshire .Anglesea... ...Berkshire ..Suffolk.... . North Wales .Oxfordshire Lancashire. ...... Wm. Togwood, Esq. Earl Cowper .Right Hon. Lord Crags Eliot ..J. Ant. Storer, Esq. .P. Thellusson, Esq. M.P. .J. Langston, Esq. M.P. .T. Scarrisbrick Eccleston, Esq. Buckinghamshire.... Wm. Drake, Esq. M.P. Hippesley Coxe, Esq. M.P. .Gloucestershire. Dr. Lovell, M.D. Sundridge Park ....Kent... .Sir Francis Baring, Bart. M.P. ...James Hereford Esq. Buckinghamshire....J. Fryer, Esq. .Suffolk...... ..Yorkshire ... Nottinghamshire Middlesex .... .Sir Wm. Rowley, Bart. Sir Robert Preston, Bart. M.P. His Grace the Duke of Portland . Cambridgeshire......Earl Hardwicke Berkshire ......Right Hon. H. Addington, M.P. .... Buckinghamshire....Right Hon. Lord Carrington. [Fig. 37. Diagram to shew the use of the human figure as a scale for measuring objects.] CHAPTER I. Introduction-General Principles-Utility-Scale-Various Examples of comparative Proportion-Use of Perspective-Example from THE FORT-Ground-Several Examples of removing Earth-The great Hill at WENTWORTH. THE Theory and practice of Landscape Gardening have seldom fallen under the consideration of the same author; because those who have delivered their opinions in writing on this art have had little practical experience, and few of its professors have been able to deduce their rules from theoretical principles. To such persons indeed had its practice been committed, that it required no common degree of fortitude and perseverance to elevate the art of landscape gardening to its proper rank, and amongst those which distinguish the pleasures of civilized society from the pursuits of savage and barbarous nations. Not deterred by the sneer of ignorance, the contradiction of obstinacy, the nonsense of vanity, or the prevalence of false The ignorance and obstinacy here alluded to, relate to the frequent opposition I have experienced from gardeners, bailiffs, and land stewards, who either wilfully mar my plans, or ignorantly mistake my instructions. taste, I made the attempt; and with the counsels and advice of men of science, and the countenance of some of the first characters in the kingdom, a very large portion of its scenery has been committed to my care for improvement. Hence it might be expected, that with some degree of confidence I now should deliver the result of my observations; yet, from the difficulties continually increasing with my knowledge of the subject, I submit this work to the public with far more diffidence than I did my former volume: because in this, as in every other study, reflection and observation on those things which we do know, teach us to regret our circumscribed knowledge, and the difficulty of reducing to fixed principles the boundless variety of the works of Nature. If any general principles could be established in this art, I think that they might be deduced from the joint consideration of relative fitness or UTILITY, and comparative proportion or SCALE; the former may be referred to the mind, the latter to the eye, yet these two must be inseparable. Under relative fitness I include the comfort, the convenience, the character, and every circumstance of a place, that renders it the desirable habitation of man, and adapts it to the uses of each individual proprietor; for it has occasionally happened to me to have been consulted on the same subject by two different proprietors, when my advice has been materially varied, to accord with the respective circumstances or intentions of each. The second is that leading principle which depends on sight, and which I call comparative proportion; because all objects appear great or small by comparison only, or as they have a reference to other objects with which they are liable to be compared. As this will be more clearly explained by an example, the vignette* at the beginning of the chapter presents two • Besides the obelisks in the vignette, are several other emblems relating to landscape gardening: the proportional compasses are often necessary to fix the exact comparative dimensions on paper, to reduce or enlarge the scale, and the flowing lines of ribbon or linen cloth are frequently necessary to mark the outline of a piece of water, when its effect is to be judged of at a distance; but, above all, the eye to observe and the hand to delineate, are always necessary, and will often supersede the use of every instrument; because the judicious artist must rather consider things as they appear than obelisks, of exactly the same size, yet by the figures placed near each, they appear to be of very different dimensions. The height of a man we know to be generally from five to six feet, but an obelisk may be from ten to a hundred feet high; we therefore compare the unknown with the known object, and immediately pronounce one of these obelisks to be twice the size of the other. Yet without some such scale to assist the eye, it would be equally difficult either in nature, or in a picture, to form a correct judgment concerning objects of uncertain dimensions. At HOLKHAM, about twenty years ago, the lofty obelisk seen from the portico, appeared to be surrounded by shrubbery, but on a nearer approach, I found that these apparent shrubs were really large trees, and only depressed by the greater height of the obelisk. A similar instance occurs at WELBECK; the large grove of oaks seen from the house across the water, consists of trees most remarkable for their straight and lofty stems; yet, to a stranger, their magnitude is apparently lessened by an enormous large and flourishing ash, which rises like a single tree out of a bank of brushwood. When I was first consulted respecting WENTWORTH House, the lawn behind it appeared circumscribed, and the large trees which surrounded that lawn appeared depressed by four tall obelisks: these have since been removed, the stately trees have assumed their true magnitude, and the effect of confinement is done away. I have illustrated these observations by the example of an obelisk [fig. 37], because its height being indeterminate, it may mislead the eye as a scale; since, according to its size and situation, the very same design may serve for a lamp-post, a mile-stone in the market-place of a city, an ornament to a public square, or it may be raised on the summit of a hill, a monument to a nation's glory. The necessity of observing scale or comparative proportion, may be further elucidated by a reference to WEST WYCOMBE, a place generally known, from its vicinity to the road to Oxford. Amongst the profusion of buildings and ornament as they really exist, by which he may unite distant objects, and separate those in contact; his effects must be studied with the eye of the painter, and reduced to proper scale with the measurement of the land surveyor. |