Have you a canal to form? look if you can discover any natural ftream that meanders in a direct line: - Hills rife not uniformly regular, nor are woods, lawns, rocks, or water, confined to a mathematical exactness. Beauty in gardening is not to be confidered by a perfect fymmetry, as in a palace; it is composed, and ever delights in the wildness of fancy, and a fympathizing irregularity: Art must never be vifible; and every fcene diftinctly variable; and each so happily blended, or fecluded from the other, as to strike the beholder with pleasure and furprize.

This is the grand chain to be observed by the attentive defigner; if one link is broken in the most trifling object by wrong judgment, it is of fuch importance, that the whole may fall into cenfure, and other beauties be fullied by its deformity.

The genius of the place muft never be neglected; it is the principal object in gardening; and to follow nature implicitly as fhe leads, is equally as important. The artift, upon confulting these leading maxims, will easily determine where to rear the ample obelisk-his temples will rife on the brows of well-fheltered hills, or on the easy floped lawn, within the umbrage of the hanging grove-his grots, contemplative and retired, will be faluted by the peaceful lake, or the foothing monotony of the trickling rill-his cafcades will be romanticly difpofed, bold, confufed, and artless; his rocks broken, jagged, and mishapen-mellifluous fhrubs will fcent his more retired walks, where diftant objects are not called for, and elegance and beauty will grace the whole. To furprize and pleafe, is the very foul of tafte; and whoever is happy enough to accomplish this, has done what the whole at of gardening can dictate to him.

One

One would imagine, among the liberal arts that have flourished in a state of perfection for fuch a number of years, that the ornamenting of parks and pleasure grounds, in the genuine tafte they now appear, would long before the present æra have rofe into the fame repute. The Romans, when architecture was in its perfect glory, when palaces in every village ftood in fuch majesty, we do not find their gardens any way remarkable, except for grandeur and a prodigality of expence ; nothing pleafed but what had the air of greatness; the foft and delightful receffès of nature were defpifed, rejected; art filled every corner, and nought but the pageantry of magnificence claimed the attention of the people of that great and powerful empire.

The celebrated poets of all ages, in their paftorals, paint the beauties and fimplicity of nature in fuch lively colours, and fo invitingly, that it is amaz B 2

ing

ing no imitative genius fprung up, and exploded the reigning motly whims, by realizing the charming defcriptions: how finely, and with what judgment and taste, does Milton fing the beauties of the garden.

Thus was this place

A happy rural feat of various view:

Groves whofe rich trees wept odorous gums &balm; Others whofe fruit burnish'd with golden rind Hung amiable, Hefperian fables true,

If true, here only; and of delicious taste : Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks Grazing the tender herb, were interposed,

Or palmy hillock; or the flow'ry lap

Of fome irriguous valley spread her store,
Flow'rs of all hue, and without thorn the rofe:
Another fide umbrageous grots, and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant; mean-while murm'ring waters fall
Down the flope hills, difpers'd, or in a lake
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.
The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the fmell of field and grove, attune

The

The trembling leaves, while univerfal Pan
Khit with the Graces and the Hours in dance
Led on th' eternal spring.

Par. Loft Book iv.

The famous Le Nôtre, who flourished in the reign of William III. was the capital gardener of his time; he was fucceffively employed in the execution of the finest gardens in England and France; and he mangled nature with all that fire of genius, which then was the prevailing mode: his defigns were exceedingly extenfive and powerful, in his way, but furely they were puerile; he never confulted nature, but to rob her of her beauty; and that rule and line fo dangerous to handle was his darling child, whom he ever fondled with the moft ridiculous diftinction. Long avenues, ftraight canals, ponds. octangular, fquare and oblong, compofed his favourite waters; mounts regular and, uniform, naked and unadorned; temples