About the beginning of the 18th century, the Earl of Lauderdale is said to have sent plans, sections, and sacks of earth, from his domain at Hatton, to London and Wise, in London ; and these artists, it is added, formed a plan, and sent down a gardener to stipei intend its execution.
Switzer, Laurence, and Langley, mention in their works, they were frequently called into Scotland to give plans of improvement. Switzer appears to have residerla con siderable time in Edinburgh, as lie there published, in 1717, a tract on draining, and other useful and agricultural im provements.
The Earls of Stair and I laddington, ( who wrote on trees,) both great planters, before or about this time, probably con sulted them ; as would, pernaps, Fletcher of S dtoun ; tire proprietors of Dundas Castle, Barmen, Saughtonhall, Go gar, and particularly Craigie-hall, a residence laid out with much art and iaste, and next in rank, in these respects, to Hmton. New Liston, Dalk.etri House, Hopeton House, and various other places near Edinburgh, are also in Swit zees style. New Liston and Hopeton House, planted, we believe, from 1735 to 1740, were probably the last consi derable seats laid out in the ancient style in Scotland.
It is observed by the author of an "Essay on the Rise and Progress of Gardening in Ireland," (J. C. Walker, in Trans. R. I. ?lcad. VOL xiv. part 3d,) " that Fynnes Morri son, a minute observer, who travelled through that king dom in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, does not once men tion a garden, as appertaining either to a castle or to a mo nastery ; he only observes, " that the best sorts of flowers and fruits are much rarer in Ireland than in England ; which, notwithstanding, is more to be attributed to the in habitants than to the ayre." In an inedited account of a Tour in 1634, also quoted by Mr. Walker, (Trans. R. I. ?.) Bishop Usher's palace is said to have a " pretty neat garden." Sonic of the largest sculptured evergreens in Ireland are at Bangor, in the county of Down ; and at Thomas-town, in the county of Tipperary, are the remains of a hanging gar den, formed on the side of a hill, in one corner of which is a verdant amphitheatre, once the scene of occasional drama tic exhibitions.
Blissington gardens, if tradition may be relied on, were laid out during the reign of James II. by an English gen tleman, who had left his estate at Byfleet in Sussex, to es cape the persecution of Cromwell. The first forcing house is supposed to have been erected in these gardens ; and the first plant stove at !Myra, in the succeeding reign, by Sir Archibald Rawdon, an ancestor of the Marquis of Hast ings.
In king William's time, knots of flowers, curious edg ings of box, topiary works, grassy slopes, and other cha racteristics of the Dutch style, came into notice. Rowe and Bullein, Englishmen, who had sussessively nurseries at Dublin, were, in these days, the principal rural artists of Ireland ; though Switzer and Laurence, as well as Batty Langley, occasionally visited these countries.
Of the state of country seats in Ireland during the 16th and 17th centuries, we arc not sufficiently acquainted to be able to give any general outline. If tradition is to be cre dited, they were more in the English than in the Scotch manner ; and, as might be expected, inferior to both in re spect to domestic conveniences.
Having now completed an historical outline of the an cient style, or what may be, with equal propriety, called French or Roman gardening, in Europe, we shall proceed to our next epoch, which embraces the modern style.
Wc have chosen this period to introduce what is known of the art of gardening among the Chinese ; not only be cause we have now brought down our history to the time it first received the attention of Europeans, but also be cause a previous account of it will serve greatly to faci litate our investigations into the origin of the English style.
The first authentic notice of Chinese gardening received in Europe, is contained in the well known "Lettres Edi fiantes et Curieuses," Sce. in a letter dated Pekin, 1743, giving an account of the Emperor's gardens there. It was translated by Mr. Spence, under the fictitious title of Sir Harry Beaumont, whom Lord Walpole describes as hav ing " both taste and zeal for the present style ;" and was published in Dadsley's collection in 1761. The chief fea tures in the Emperor's gardens were buildings, mock towns, villages, artificial hills, vallies, lakes, and canals; serpentine bridges, covered by colonades and resting places, with a farm and fields, where his imperial majesty is ac customed to patronize rural industry, by putting his hand to the plough ; or, as it has been otherwise expressed, " to play at agriculture once a year." But some idea of the C hinese style must have been known, from the verbal accounts of Chinese merchants or travel lers, nearly a century before. A proof of this is to be found in Sir William Temple's Essay, written about the middle of the 17th century. He informs us, that though he recommends regularity in gardens, yet, for any thing he knows, there may be more beauty in such as are wholly irregular. " Something of this sort," he says, " I have seen in some places, but heard more of it from others, who have lived much among the Chinese." Referring to their studied irregularity, lie adds, " When they find this sort of beauty in perfection, so as to hit the eye, they say it is she rawadgi, an expression signifying fine or admirable." It appears from this passage, that the Chinese style had not only been known, but imitated in England nearly a century previously to the publication of the Jesuits' Letters, and, at least, 60 years before Kent's time. Sir William Tem ple retired to Moor Park in 1680, and died in the year 1700.