beauty; and the result was, that he became too much of a mannerist, and when his system of belting and clumping had fallen into the hands of a herd of imitators, nothing could be more monotonous and insipid than the scenery which was daily creating from one end of the kingdom to the other; the two great agents, wood and water, which should naturally have produced a never-ceasing variety, being now seen only under prescribed forms, the former presenting but the belt, the clump, or the single tree, and the latter assuming, however different might be the situation, one uniform shape and character.

Such a system, it is evident, could not last long; for though it was upheld for a time by the ingenuity and resources of Humphrey Repton, who used to term Brown "his great selftaught predecessor," it fell, about the year 1794, before the attack of Payne Knight, and Uvedale Price, the former in his "Landscape, a Poem," and the latter in his "Essays on the Picturesque,” endeavouring to establish the art of landscape gardening on the principles of painting, "not," as Price justly observed, "to the exclusion of nature, but as an assistant in the study of her works."

Nothing, certainly, could be better adapted to introduce the variety and the freedom which were now so much wanted in the art, than the plan thus recommended, provided it were adopted with a due attention to congruity and utility; and its influence, in fact, on the public mind soon became such, as, though opposed at first by nearly all the disciples of Brown, and especially by Repton, who entered into a public controversy with Price on the subject, it speedily effected a very desirable change in the aspect of our decorated scenery, and even finally brought over its warmest opponents; the latter works of Repton, who continued to publish until 1817, partaking much more of what might entitle him to be considered a disciple of Price than of his former venerated master.

The study, however, of the finest artists in landscape painting, of Rosa, Ruysdale, Poussin, and Claude, with a view to the transference of their beauties to living scenery, must, unless under the guidance of a correct judgment, and great good sense, often produce a display of wild, fantastic, and discordant parts, tenfold more disgusting than even the monotonous out

lines of Brown; and such, indeed, has not unfrequently been the case; for, where it has been forgotten that grounds should be laid out not exclusively with a view to pictorial effect, but with a direct reference in many of their features to the personal use, and comfort, and enjoyment of the proprietor, what but affectation and inaccordancy must ensue? In fact, it should be ever held in mind, that the grounds immediately adjoining the mansion should, in a greater or less degree, partake of the style and character of its age and architecture. If the house be an old one, or built to assume the appearance of antiquity, assuredly a correct taste would preserve, or create, around it a style of gardening correspondent with its time-worn aspect; and the avenue, the alley, the terrace, and parterre, would here find their proper place; whilst, if the character of the country should admit of it, the more distant parts of the domain, where nature is expected to be perfectly free from control, might exhibit all that a picturesque imagination could conceive and execute;

All that Lorraine light touch'd with soft'ning hue, Or savage Rosa dash'd, or learned Poussin drew.

If, on the contrary, the mansion be in the modern style of architecture, still the homegrounds, whilst they partake of the more free, cheerful, and disengaged character of the building, should exhibit, though without any offensive intrusion of art, evident traces of their adaptation to the pleasures and comforts of domestic life. Harmony, therefore, and softness, and a certain degree of regular beauty, though not unmingled with the charms of a varying outline, should be studied here, and not picturesque effect; this, as in the former instance, being reserved for scenery less immediately connected with the business and the pursuits of man. It is this want of attention to propriety, to the beauty resulting from adaptation, utility, and a due subserviency to the purposes of habitation, which has rendered so many attempts towards creating picturesque effect not only extravagant, but ridiculous; and which occasioned Dugald Stewart, several years ago, to observe, in relation to the new system of Messrs. Knight and Price: "As to the application of the knowledge acquired from the study of paintings, to the improvement of natural landscape, I have

"Let

no doubt, that to a superior understanding and taste, like those of Price, it may often suggest very useful hints; but if recognised as the standard to which the ultimate appeal is to be made, it would infallibly cover the face of the country with a new and systematical species of affectation, not less remote than that of Brown, from the style of gardening which he wishes to recommend ;" and he then adds, in a vein of good sense which should never be forgotten, painting be allowed its due praise in quickening our attention to the beauties of nature; in múltiplying our resources for their farther embellishment; and in holding up a standard, from age to age, to correct the caprices of fashionable innovations; but let our taste for these beauties be chiefly formed on the study of nature herself; nor let us ever forget so far what is due to her indisputable and salutary prerogative, as to attempt an encroachment upon it by laws, which derive the whole of their validity from her own sanction."

Fortunately a taste for the study of nature, as she is to be seen in this country, under all her most pleasing and picturesque forms, had